Or how to look after your onions
I love onions.
In all its forms. In tarts, chutneys, soups… I use it in all kinds of sauces to accompany dishes. Onions are good to eat and good for your health.
What does it look like in botanical color? Its skins come in lovely shades of yellow, orange, plum or green. So how do you dye with onion skins? It’s quite simple.
The dyeing process is simple
Simplicity of onion harvesting
Nothing could be simpler than collecting the peelings that have fallen to the bottom of the crates in which they are stored. Of course, I recommend that you choose organic products.
This means you can collect large quantities of plant waste all year round, and store it in a dry kraft bag or crate.
Be sure to keep only the outer skins completely dry. They are richer in colorant, and you avoid mold.
Red and yellow onions work just as well. They will offer different nuances. Feel free to mix them to broaden the color palette.
Onion peels are rich in quercetin, a yellow colorant from the flavonoid family. Red onions are among the richest plants in quercetin.
Once you’ve harvested your crop, you can process the peels in a food processor to chop them finely.
Simplicity of onion dye
Plan to use at least as much peel as weight of fiber you dye. If you can, double the dose for more saturated colors.
You can easily dye wool, silk, cotton, linen or hemp. The nuances will vary according to the quality and nature of the material.
Unlike phytolac, but as with turmeric and avocado tinctures, no mordanting is required.
It is only optional. A beetroot mordant for animal fibers(wool and silk) or symplocos for all fibers (animal or botanical) can be used to produce deeper shades. I haven’t tested it, but it seems to me that mordanting with alum (which I don’t do) gives bright yellows with onion.
First step in onion dyeing
Soak your chopped onion peel in a pot of water. And leave overnight.
The next day, heat the pot to a simmer 185°F (85°C).
During cooking, the juice will turn red. Boil for at least 45 minutes up to 1 hour, or even 1h30, depending on the quantity of plant.
Add water in case of evaporation to keep the plant submerged.
Turn off the heat. Let cool and strain the decoction through cheesecloth. Reserve the juice.
For a higher concentration of colorant, you can repeat the operation and make a second decoction with the plant material recovered from the cheesecloth. Add the second juice to the first.
Leave the resulting juice to stand overnight.
Second stage of onion tincture
Pour your onion juice into a pot large enough to adequately spread out the fibers to be dyed.
Add the fibers, mordanted or not, previously wetted and wrung out. Make sure they are completely submerged. The correct amount of water in a dye bath is approximately 20 liters for 1 kg of fiber to be dyed. This ratio is slightly higher for small quantities, i.e. 2.5 or even 3 liters per 100 g of fabric.
Heat your pot and gradually raise the temperature to a gentle simmer (185°F).
Keep at this temperature for around 30 minutes to 1 hour, adding hot water as you cook to keep the fibers submerged.
For the most even color possible, stir regularly (about every ten minutes) and gently.
Turn off the heat and let the dye bath to cool.
If you’re dyeing silk, the dye bath should be done cold, leaving the fibers to soak for 12 hours, stirring regularly.
Once the bath has cooled, remove the fibers and wring them out. Dry in the shade.
To shade the color, you can soak your cotton, linen or hemp fabric in iron juice. It will quickly take on beautiful shades of green or mauve gray. Shading is not possible on animal fibers, as it may damage them.
Finally, wash with an ecological ph-neutral detergent.
There’s so much you can do with onions! My only complaint is that it makes me cry every time I peel it.
A “grief” quickly forgotten. The color remains…
So if you feel like it, it’s up to you.
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