[Sca-cooks] non-toxic dyes

[Pixel, Queen of Cats]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Jennifer Thompson wrote:
>
> Oh and there's my obligatory food reference. Food safe dyes? Anyone run
> across any foods that have colored aprons, towels or the like? I will not
> use anything that can't be eaten (I have a 14 month old) and have been
> playing in the kitchen lately with the obvious ones, like beet juice.

Saffron, onionskins, saunders, safflower. Depends on your fibers, though,
which will work and which will not, and what color you will get. Alkanet,
IIRC, was used as a food coloring agent, but I don't know how safe it is
in the proportions for dyeing.

Turmeric, as mentioned, also elderberries, oak bark and acorns (ok,
they're not toxic, but they don't taste particularly good), dandelion
roots.

You probably want to consult a dyeing book for info on proportions,
mordants, that sort of thing.

Margaret FitzWilliam