What's in the basket? Ham, potica or bread, a root or two of the horseradish plant, and easter eggs.
(This is not my basket! just a random pic found here - I still haven't got the digital camera!!)
Now you know my Mom: she is a great fan of the plastic bags.
So every Easter, the Easter basket was full of goodies in plastic bags!
But this Easter was zero waste Easter: how could we put plastic bags in the basket?!
So Great Consultant aka Granny came to help:
"What did you do in the old times?" I asked.
"Just stuffed it in the basket," she said.
"Put a cloth underneath, and a pretty cloth on top, and that's all!"
So we wrapped the potica in cloth wrappings, put the meat into a Curver/Tupperware-style reusable plastic container (Granny couldn't remember what - if anything - they used back then, maybe paper bags from groceries), and slipped in the horseradish roots and the colored eggs!
We had colored the eggs with onion peels, blackcurrants (from 2003) & raspberries (from 2005, both in reusable ex-icecream containers), but I have to admit the onion peels produced the best color! (& are mostly zero waste too!)
/Last year blackcurrant-colored-eggs were very beautiful too, maybe we did it a bit differently or the eggs were a bit different - & darker - this year!)
We just made them one-colored, as I wasn't happiest about cooking the eggs in nylon stockings! (and that method would produce waste too, no?!)
My Mom's heart was sinking, when she thought of colored easter eggs naked on the pretty cloth linen, but we tested them on an ordinary kitchen cloth & the color didn't come off, so they were safe to go!
Usually, she put some oil on the colored eggs to make 'em shine, but to avoid oil on cloth disaster, we just skipped that stage - & the onion-peel-colored eggs were very beautiful anyway!
(pic found here)
At church, I *did* wonder what in everybody's basket was!!
Grandma said that a joke at the time was that a woman carried a very heavy & rich-looking basket & then tripped, and old shoes came flying from the huge basket! (We did wonder if that was true too!! :))
Well, HAPPY ZERO WASTE EASTER!! :)
& may it be HOPPY too, to burn all those calories! ;)
The traditional Easter breakfast here involves ham, homebaked potica, bread, yummy horseradish-apple-egg sauce, easter eggs, and other optional items like cheese etc!
note to self: be in time to prevent paper napkins being added to the Easter breakfast! I never know what to do with those! not safe for recycling, not sure about burning them or putting on compost, they do look chlorine-bleached, hmm!
You should see the look on Mom's face when I suggested those were not zero waste, bless her! Ahh, maybe next year!
And some more ideas to decorate Easter eggs next year:
Drapanka from Poland made by scratching
(Picture, more info & ideas found here)
is that a photo of the baskets at your church? They look really beautiful. I'm so pleased you managed to figure out a zero waste solution!
ReplyDeletehave a lovely easter day :)
These are just random pics from the net!
ReplyDelete/still haven't got a digital camera!/
There were lots and lots of baskets like this at the church though, & even prettier ones! :)
I'm very happy we figured out a zero waste solution too!!
Wishing you all a lovely Easter Sunday too!! :)
Very nice traditions, and the easter egg design ist great! Have to try that!:)
ReplyDeleteHi Layla!
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a very happy Easter!
Do you know that there's a similar tradition here in Romagna? Here people brings their Easter eggs to church to bless. But our aunt can't go there because she's invalid. So the priest came home to bless the house and the eggs that of course had no wraps! :)
She gave us two eggs of those... but I hadn't the time to colour them... but next here I will follow your suggestion! ;)
Hi Danda! :)
ReplyDeleteYes, it was happy!! :) /finally, the end of all cleaning..!! :) & resting!!)
Interesting to know you have a similar tradition! Sorry to hear your aunt is invalid, glad to know the priest can come! My Granny just watches the mass on TV! (she's not invalid, but says she has difficulty sitting in our church's tiny benches! she's over 80, so I think watching on TV is quite okay!)
Did she give you chicken's eggs or chocolate eggs? ;)
We colored the eggs on Friday evening, left them to soak overnight.. maybe I'll be able to post a pic in the future, from cousin's digital camera - but he didn't have a cable with! /sigh/
Onion peels are really very simple to use, & produce good results.. You can just cook the eggs in them & don't have to do anything with them, if you don't have the time.. :)
Hi Emi, nice to see you here!! :)
ReplyDeleteDo post a pic if you try the easter egg design! :)