Wednesday, March 26, 2014

in my neighbourhood - an oxfam Easter

So, committing to no child labour chocolate for Easter is great on paper but kind of tricky in real life, right? I mean the shops are full of those huge bags of mini chocolate eggs that taste suspiciously like plastic and doing a fair trade chocolate bar search for Easter lacks a certain feeling too.


So Oxfam here (and I suspect Trade Aid) in NZ has actual eggs! Whooo-hoo. Yes they are more expensive than the plastic tasting ones you will buy at The Warehouse or Kmart or wherever you might buy eggs, but that means the people who made them got paid properly and the cocoa will have also been farmed in a sustainable fashion, and they have been made from actual ingredients. Also (which is a bonus for people like me who can be easily blinded by bargains, into buying more) I will buy less and think carefully about my choices.

Today I bought these (on special, see bargains above), which are a cool set of 6 hollow eggs and arrows so you can plan a hunt for someone. I'll get the boys to make them for each other.


and I will probably buy one of the paper mache rabbits (even though I prefer chicks, who at least lay eggs) with chocolate buttons in them. After that an egg for The Atlas and maybe some little eggs. Really my boys are only ever allowed one egg or 2 on the day and then the rest go away and we forget about them.


Truly - ask my sisters how many kgs of half eaten bags of lollies, lolly pops, mini eggs, chocolate coins,.... I gave away when I went through my pantry - it was embarrassing!!

... so this Easter if you are wanting to make fair and kind choices check out your local (or online Oxfam or Trade Aid) and buy less plastic chocolate and a couple of really nice eggs instead. If you want to do an egg hunt how about making some felt eggs or similar and just a couple of choccies?


Or buy a fair trade block of chocolate - Whittakers Dark Ghana can be quite reasonable if it's on special at the supermarket (it's hard to find here :o( ) and make some of your own.


I'm going to do a whole post about the lovely Oxfam shop here at some point but for now check out their Easter loveliness.

love you more than an egg hunt followed by home made hot cross buns xxx