Instructions: Michael Chiarello, founding chef and partner of Tra Vigne restaurant in St.

Helena, comes from a big Turlock clan. The familys roots are in southern Italy where growing, preparing and enjoying food was at the center of everything, especially at Easter.

Chiarello has widened that family heritage by creating his own Easter rituals centered around seasonal living, combined with his professional interest in artfully served meals and fresh produce.

One of Chiarellos Easter activities is gathering friends to dye Easter eggs naturally. Dyes from common kitchen ingredients produce eggs in variations of soft, subtle hues, as a change from the popular bright, pastel colors.

He says use almost anything edible in your kitchen to color egg. The trick is time. The longer you leave the eggs in the mixture, the richer the color will be.

Combine one cup of water with one of the following color ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 10 to 20 minutes. Strain and add one tablespoon white vinegar. Add hard-cooked eggs to the hot liquid and let stand until desired shade is reached.

Try these natural dyes:
Bright pink to beige: Half cup cranberries, beets or frozen raspberries

Yellow or orange: one tablespoon ground turmeric or one cup (packed) yellow onion skins

Pale green: one cup (packed) spinach leaves

Pale to bright Blue: half cup canned or frozen blueberries or coarsely chopped red cabbage

Gold: two tablespoons dill seeds and half cup walnuts

Deep mocha: strongly brewed coffee

Lavender: blueberries

Use two to four cups of the ingredient per pot, more for onion skins (about four to six cups) and less for spices like turmeric (start with about one tablespoon).

A warning: Use just one ingredient per batch to avoid muddy colors.

Instructions:
Place eggs in a deep, non-reactive pan. Add coloring ingredient, then cover with a quart of cold water and two tablespoons of white vinegar to fix the dye.

Gently simmer the eggs for 20 minutes or up to 3 hours, until you like the color.

For a beautifully delicate, shattered look, remove a few eggs and gently roll each in a soft towel. Return eggs to the pot for another half-hour.

You can eat the eggs so long as you havent used anything toxic in the dye.

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