How to get real at Easter

WARNING

• THIS POST CONTAINS CHOCOLATE

- as you can see from these Easter eggs

• TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE MAY HARM YOU

- but don't you like a little indulgence at special times?

Out of kindness to you who give up chocolate in Lent, I'm posting this before Lent starts (9th March this year). But it's not too early to start thinking about Easter eggs, chocolate or real.

In my childhood the special treat at Easter Sunday breakfast was real eggs soft-boiled in water containing vegetable dye. You can do it easily by adding something like red onion skins to the water. We 3 children would help add fun faces and hair before cracking the eggs and eating them. Probably much better for us than chocolate eggs, but we did get those too. Which brings me back to chocolate.

British supermarkets sell millions of chocolate Easter eggs each year, many ridiculously priced and with huge surplus of packaging. 2011 is the first year that some of them will sell 'The Real Easter Egg' - a fair-traded chocolate egg that actually mentions Jesus. The box has a brief explanation of the reason Christians celebrate Easter. It's only a trial in selected stores, to test demand. I'm hoping demand will outstrip supply so they will order more next year. If you're in the UK start hunting for yours now!

I like 'The Real Easter Egg' because at £3.99 it's reasonably priced, it's said to be good quality and fair-traded chocolate and part of the profits will go to 2 charities:

• Baby Lifeline which supports new mothers and new-born babies in the UK
• Traidcraft Exchange which fights poverty through trade, helping people in developing countries and campaigning for trade justice.

Thanks to The Church Mouse for reminding me about this today. And just for the record, no-one is paying me to write this post, no matter how many times you click on its links.