No sooner is all the Christmas paraphernalia cleared off their shelves than the supermarkets re-stock them with Easter “goodies”. I’ve been seeing hot cross buns since February. To me that’s not right – but then the supermarkets don’t care too much about seasonality. Ever tried to buy a good English apple in the heart of the domestic fruit-picking season?
easter mini eggs
When I was a kid, packaged hot cross buns didn’t really exists (at least not that I was aware of). It was something of a family ritual for my dad to buy them fresh from the baker on Good Friday. We’d gorge on them, dripping with hot butter, straight after church.
hot cross buns & butter
Sticking with the religious theme, I wonder how many kids these days even understand what an Easter egg represents? For those that I know it’s simply a question of who can acquire the most with the best toy, gadget or mug. In some supermarkets, these eggs are offered on a “buy one, get two free” basis. Not much hope for God to compete with Tesco then is there?
easter creme egg
Then there’s simnel cake. My mum always made one, complete with eleven marzipan balls to represent the true disciples of Jesus. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not banging the gong for religion. I’m more concerned about the way we’re drifting away from making and baking food that complement traditional British festivities. Ever thought about making Easter eggs? Or baking hot cross buns? It could be a lot of messy fun. The mass produced stuff is, let’s face it, pretty bland and available for far too long. Might help us all to think and eat a bit more locally and seasonally.
homemade easter egg nests
With the temperature warming up nicely, Brian’s hens have become profligate layers. We can’t keep up with them! But shooting eggs has always been a bit of a problem for me. I’ve never been really happy with the results. Fried eggs always look a bit washed out (controlling the light as it bounces off all those slippery surfaces is a challenge I’ve yet to conquer) whilst boiled eggs can look just a bit too messy. The best shots I’ve captured have been eggs of the poached variety served with carpaccio of tuna.
poached egg with carpaccio of tuna
Have a happy, peaceful and local Easter.
