Can you list your favorite foods for various colors? I want to get into this as the natural dyes I buy for cake decorating are stupid expensive.
for blue and purple aronia and black currant dye pretty good.
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Some varieties of strawberry make a good red food dye.
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Mulberry is extremely staining and would make a good dye.
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i bet cherries would be good too. they stain bad.
not a fruit but beets for a purple.
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theres lots of cool fabric dyes, but for food you can use turmeric for yellow, spirolina or spinach for green, butterfly pea or blue spiruilina for blue, also for purple, red you can use pomegranate or beet. beet also makes a nice pink.
Brown ofc cocoa.
The key with natural dyes in food is finding one that is strong enough in color you dont need to add much and effect the taste.
Crushed freeze dried fruits like strawberry, apricot, and blueberry look pretty good too but i find can add some flavor depending on the usage.
Some fruits i use for fabric dyes: pokeberry (vibrant pink), black nightshade, (deep purple, probably would work for food too, when ripe its edible and safe, never tried it i just occured to me), black walnut makes from a greenish brown to black to tan to a maroony color. also adds tanins to a lot of other dyes!
turmeric again can do yellow or orange (not very lightfast though). Sumac can do blue to pink (depending on acidity). Pomegranate rind is good for a yellow.
Onionskins makes a great orangey brown. roselle is nice pinks. Avocado seed also a nice orangey brown.
My fave natural dye is birch bark which is a nice dusty pink.
My sister actually quilts with natural dyes she forages herself! Crabapple makes a minty green surprsiingly.
I tried to find any finsihed pics of her work, but for some reason all that I can locate is just pics of fabric
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My mother made a fermented sort of dessert or ice cream topping. Take a very large jar and fill it with sliced peaches, pears, cherries or whatever but not bananas. They won’t do well. Maybe a bit of sugar. Then pour either brandy or rum over and cover all the fruit. Hold it down with a ceramic bowl if need be. Then she would just put it on top of the fridge for maybe 2 or 3 months. You could do all sorts of variations on it. Not sure what it’s called. We just called it brandied fruit. Was really good at Christmas.
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I dehydrated some Oh My seedless muscadines this past fall and they were very good. Sweet, flavorful, a little chewey very similar to rasins.
When my Oh My and Oh Yes get into full production….. we will eat many fresh… but also dehydrate and Jam many.
TNHunter
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I love making liqueurs. Anyone who grows blackcurrants needs to be making Crème de cassis. Black raspberries work great too- homemade is better than Chambord.
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Use apples to make a rough sauce for winter squash. Cook cored and peeled most of the way then mash leaving a few small chunks. Add butter, salt, pepper, garlic, allspice, a tiny tiny bit of clove and brown sugar. No cinnamon. Cinnamon gets weird and tastes weird in it. Or add salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and a very small amount of tarragon or thyme and butter. Either roast the squash with the sauce put on it part way through or just top it with the sauce when it comes out of the oven. Or roast with sauce on and tin foil over it and remove the tin foil part way through.
Sauce would go well with pork chops and maybe fresh mutton too.
ALSO, duck sauce for egg and spring rolls; look for a recipe online. Made with apricot jam. You can use plum also, but I think with plum it has a different name.
ALSO, berry sauces for pancakes.
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1 more: Coco coir!
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