Eggcellent Ideas for Easter

Easter is a wonderful time to celebrate – Spring has sprung (yippee!), it’s the first public holiday after New Year’s Day (a four day weekend no less – hooray!) and of course there are treats galore (yum!). It’s an opportunity to spend time with family and friends, a break from the school routine and, for many, the religious significance of Easter is important to celebrate too.

Easter is largely a time of fun (and puns, which we shall try to refrain from as they can be so eggs-asperating!). On the flip side it can also be costly to our pockets as well as the planet, creating an enormous amount of waste, much of which can’t be recycled or reused.

We are totally up for the enjoyment of Easter, but in a way that’s kinder to the planet and our bank balance.

Here are a few eco-Easter tips, with some unavoidable puns thrown in…

Easter Gifts

Bake or buy eco-friendly Easter treats rather than shelling out on mass produced chocolate eggs which are often over-priced and over-packaged. Dorking’s lovely independent shops have plenty of alternative gift ideas too, or you can make your own Easter presents and decorations for a really personal touch. 

Plants, bulbs or seeds are a fabulous longer-lasting alternative to chocolates or cut flowers — Spring is the perfect time for planning and planting a sensational Summer display. But if you are looking for a bunch or bouquet, for a gift or for your own table, choose fresh flowers over flown and buy seasonal locally grown pesticide free blooms, or forage for foliage in your garden!

Give a crap about how you wrap! Avoid single use plastic film, bows or trimmings. Check any paper you buy is recycled or recyclable. Even better, shred newspaper to fill gift bags (plain paper ones which you can decorate yourself) or baskets (reusable, not plastic) and use whole sheets from papers or magazines tied with yellow or green ribbon to wrap gifts. Got a flowery frock or shirt you no longer wear? Squares of fabric tied with ribbon are an easy way to wrap eggs or oddly-shaped gifts. 

Just think “reuse, recycle and repurpose” when you are planning Easter eats, treats, decorations, or wrapping. There are lots of Easter themed planet-friendly craft ideas you can try out too.

Good links for ideas
Shrink that footprint
Sustainable Jungle
Sustainability Success

Easter Egg Hunts

Why not decorate and hide hard-boiled eggs, or opt for reusable craft eggs instead.

Even better, you can take part in the ‘Dorkers’ Eggcellent Easter Hunt’ organised by Friends of Dorking – a free to enter sustainable Easter trail, taking place during the school holidays, featuring over 130 local shops and businesses. 

Good links for ideas
Brightly
Green Alternatives

Easter Entertaining

With so many tempting goodies on sale and a long weekend in which to enjoy them, it’s easy to lose track and buy more than you need, especially if you are entertaining with family or friends. Plan ahead and write a shopping list centred around local or British grown seasonal produce and source recipes for using up any left-overs. Be carbon-footprint conscious in choosing what to cook and compost any waste which can’t be re-heated. Why not go meat-free and put locally grown veggies at the forefront of your Easter feast?

Aside from the chocolate variety, if you are cooking with eggs this Easter, here’s a cracking tip. Crushed or ground, eggshells make a nutritious calcium rich soil enhancer for plants grown indoors or out. See our Instagram demonstration

Traditional treats (although no longer “one a penny, two a penny”), an abundance of Hot Cross Buns is definitely not so hot for the planet. Buy from a local bakery or cake shop, bake your own (so many fabulous flavour combinations to try!) or bag a bargain or two at the end of their shelf-life to avoid excess buns being binned. Cut-price or stale buns can be used in a variety of deliciously different ways. Here are some ideas…

Recipe Ideas
Triodos Bank (who’d have thought!)
Social Pantry
Love Food Hate Waste
wheeliebins.co.uk

It’s so easy to over-indulge at Easter, remember to get some fresh air and exercise too! Stroll in to town, go for a walk in the wonderful woodlands in and around Dorking, or get out in the garden. Take a moment to take in the signs of Spring all around you, nature’s gifts at their best and, best of all, free for all to enjoy.

So all that’s left to say is, have yourself a…