A green grass dye recipe for naturally staining
playdough! If you've ever found your bottles of artificial
food colouring running a little low, look outdoors for some inspiration.
This particular yellow green dye comes from a brew of blended grass clippings.
Our lawn
has a fairly generous splattering of clover and dandelion in its mix so you
may find your finished dough is somewhat brighter than the batch we managed!
Extract the green chlorophyll by blending, liquidising, juicing
or simmering a good handful (about 40g) of grass tips along with 100ml of
water. Strain the mulch through muslin, squeezing gently to make sure all
the liquid is separated - repurposed Tshirt fabric also works well for this,
measure how much fluid has been collected and if necessary make it up to
120ml.
Green grass playdough recipe
- 150g plain flour
- 120g salt
- 120g grass dye liquid
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 tbsp cream of tartar (optional)
- Lime oil
(optional)
- Hand moisturiser (optional)
Excluding any hand cream, cook the rest of the
ingredients together over a medium heat until the mixture comes together
to form a ball. Turn it out and leave to cool, then knead until the dough
is smooth, at this point add the optional hand cream or lotion and work in
the new texture by squishing and squashing! This is an ingredient that we
find helps to extend the life of playdough, improving its pliability and
is just a great extra for messy play!
Grass soup is a perfect outdoors activity that children can make in their
mud kitchen areas or anywhere there's a patch of green blades to be harvested!
With a little help from adults on electrical appliance duty the resulting
concoctions can be poured into bowls containing a beaker full of flour +
1/2 a beaker of salt. This raw dough is short lived but full of excellent
learning opportunities.
More natural dye recipes
How to make a rosehip dye
Blackberry dye
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