Hard to imagine that at exactly this time last year, I drove off with the family to the neighbouring county for an Easter break and coincided our holiday with an absolute blinder of a heatwave.

The normally pallid writer who blinks mole-like in the daylight returned a week later a bronzed sex god.

Yes, hard to imagine, because I awoke this morning, drew the curtains and saw snow. Large flakes falling from the sky complementing a crow perched on my window ledge, carrion and madness and winter reflected in those eyes.

Sure, the cycles of weather change, have always changed, climates ebbing and flowing through the millennia as species appear, go extinct, do their thing.

But what a chilling example – literally – of how rapidly the weather now fluctuates, whole regions of the earth thrown into vacation confusion, as the planet tries it damnedest but fails valiantly to absorb as much Carbon Dioxide as we can throw at it.

How can farmers plan their crops? When to sow, when to reap?

The school ground bully. The oil magnate. One and the same. The distilled essence of all in a human that makes me sick. Pinching dinner money and eating caviar.

Kurt Vonnegut leans into the microphone and says:

“I have a message for future generations and that is: Please accept our apologies…”

And so it goes.

In light of these statements, Easter celebrators might want to reflect on how the story of Easter relates to the environment.

Theologian Herman-Emiel Mertens writes,

“Those who do not understand the link between the Easter message and ecological problems, do not understand anything of either. Environmentalism in itself is of course no utterance of Easter faith. Many non-Christians are concerned about this. That is only right and proper. A monopolizing of these earthly cares by Christians is out of the question. There is environmentalism without Easter faith, but no Easter faith without environmentalism.” (Not the Cross, but the Crucified, 207)

Easter is, at its core, a very deep holiday about overcoming violence brought on by institutional structures. That is the power of Christ’s resurrection. The holiday is a display of active hope. It’s the enjoyment of a spring afternoon with family and friends in anticipation of a springlike renewal for the environment. Active hope is celebration that motivates creative action for a peaceful future.

What I like about Green Options Media is that every article written is a display of active hope. What we are seeing in the blogosphere is a celebration of creativity in the face of a challenging situation.

Photo credit: Flickr

Photo copyright Billi-Jean.com. Used with permission

Want some of the most beautifully colored eggs this Easter, but don’t have time to dye them? No problem, you can get eggs in all colors from soft, warm brown to light sage, blue-green and olive or even pink. The best part? The chickens do all the work.

Different breeds of chickens produce different egg colors. This shell color is a result of pigments that are secreted by the hen and deposited on the eggshell’s outer layers during formation in the chicken’s oviduct. Brown eggs are from the pigment protoporphyrin, a breakdown product of hemoglobin. Blue and green hues are caused by the pigment oocyanin, a by-product of bile formation.

I was a bit skeptical of some of the information I found from the Egg Nutrition Center. The Center reported that the color of the eggs a chicken lays is related to the species of the chicken and the color of the chicken’s earlobes. Chickens have earlobes? (Tips on buying eggs and what the labels mean after the jump).

I loved the fresh brown eggs we used to get from our neighbor when I was a kid in rural Missouri. The beautiful brown shells and bright orange, firm yolks were almost worth reaching under the chicken for. Almost. The rest of the memory is of pecking beaks and chicken poop, I am likely scarred for life. Not enough to call the 24-hour Alektorophobia hotline, but we chicken-phobes can all rest better knowing operators are standing by to take our call. These days, I like my farm fresh, brown eggs, washed, and in a carton.

The color of the eggshell has nothing to do with the flavor or the nutritional value of the egg. Both of these depend on the diet of the chicken, how it is raised and the freshness of the egg. There is a lot of confusion, however, with all the terms regarding eggs. Caged, Cage-free, Free Range, Pastured, Vegetarian-Fed, High-Omega-3 … what does it all mean?

The information out there does not make the learning curve any easier. For example, the American Egg Board, sponsored by industrial chicken and egg farming, states that “The nutrient content of eggs is not affected by whether hens are raised free-range or in floor or cage operations.”

This statement can be true, but not always, and it is incredibly misleading. The problem is the use of the term free-range. You see, a chicken that has access to the outdoors is free-range or cage free, but this chicken may live in a pen and its diet may be the same commercial feed as a caged, factory farm chicken. The access to outdoors may be such a limited event in the chicken’s brief lifespan, that “free-range” doesn’t even apply.

Chickens who live in “cage and floor operations” have some of the worst living conditions of any large scale livestock farming. They are often force molted to increase egg production. Force molting is achieved by staving the chicken for five to fourteen days. The stress causes the chicken to lay more eggs temporarily. Just by supporting free-range chicken and egg production, we would be making a better choice. This choice may not greatly increase the nutrition content of the egg, however.

The nutrition of an egg is primarily determined by the chickens’ diet. A chicken that is free-range and has access to pasture and a natural diet of bugs and grass in addition to non-commercial grain produces eggs that are higher in Omega-3 and other nutrients.

Factory farmed eggs can be made higher in Omega-3 and some nutrients by supplementing the chickens’ diet with things like flax seed. These are more nutritious eggs than conventional factory farm eggs, but not a true substitute for the eggs produced from a pastured chickens’ natural diet.

A good clue to the nutritional content of an egg is the color of the yolk. The deep orange color often seen in a naturally-produced egg yolk is related to the chickens’ diet. If the diet includes yellow and orange plant pigments called xanthophylls, the yolk will be deep yellow-orange. If the diet is low in these pigments, the yolk can be almost colorless.

The yolk holds all of the egg’s vitamin content including six B vitamins, as well as vitamins A, D, and E. The yolk also contains the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin and trace amounts of carotene, phosphorus, iron, and magnesium.

The American Egg Board’s claim of equality also does not address any differences in egg nutrition for a chicken on a diet of commercial feed and antibiotics for “floor and cage operations” versus a chicken raised cage-free without antibiotics and not fed commercial feed. Commercial feed often contains animal by-products such as bone, feathers, blood, manure and animal parts. It can also contain arsenic.

These “animal by-products” are often from beef. This is the same ingredient that has been banned from commercial feed for beef cattle because of concerns over Mad Cow disease. Ironically, the “meat by-product” now used for the protein source in commercial cattle feed is chicken by-products and feather meal. So, which comes first? The chicken that eats the cow, or the cow that eats the chicken?

It’s important to note, that unlike cows (ruminants), chickens are not vegetarians. They do eat protein sources like bugs. The reason you see “vegetarian-fed” on labels is to reference the lack of animal by-products in the grain that the chickens’ diet is supplemented with.

The ideal egg, for both humans and chickens, would be one from a chicken that has unlimited access to pasture and a natural diet of grasses and bugs in addition to grain that has not been supplemented with antibiotics, toxins or animal by-products. You can’t find these eggs in most grocery stores. You have to find the farmer or a grocery store that sources quality local eggs.

The Eat Well site has a great guide to what you should ask your local farmer when sourcing eggs, but here are a few important questions to ask so you can be sure you are getting the best eggs possible for you, and for the chicken:

1. Are chickens allowed a natural and varied diet along with grain?
2. How much access to pasture do the chickens have? How long do they get to be outdoors?
3. Have producer describe “cage-free” conditions, or best yet, visit the farm
4. Is the feed free of animal by-products (vegetarian)? What type of feed is the chickens’ diet supplemented with?
5. Is the feed supplemented with high Omega-3 sources like flax seed?
6. Was the chicken ever fed antibiotics?
7. Was the chicken ever force molted?

• Green Gift Ideas: Stubby Pencil Studio is now carrying wooden toys. The Spinny Speller is great for teaching children phonemic awareness and reminds me of the homemade phonics mediators my grandmother used to make for her first graders. The Made By Me wooden kits are perfect for little hands to decorate and assemble. Both toys are made in the USA. Stubby Pencil recycled cards and eco-art supplies also make nice additions to your child’s Easter basket. The cards now come in eco-friendly packaging consisting of a custom button/string tie envelope made from 30% post consumer recycled paper and green seal certified.
• Avoid food coloring and dye your eggs naturally Check out Autumn’s great post on “The Incredible, Edible Egg Dye” and last year’s posts by Phillip (”Weekly DIY: Natural Dyes for Coloring Eggs“) and myself (”Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs“).
• Give your child a book instead of candy; Whole World by Christopher Corr and Fred Penner is a new children’s book based upon the gospel spiritual originally sung by African American pianist and composer Margaret Bonds (1913-1972). We’ve reviewed a lot of great, green children’s literature on Eco Child’s Play that would be perfect for your child.
• Fair Trade basket, no plastic: Green Mom Finds featured this week a Fair Trade basket called the Bolga Basket. It is hand-made of straw by a local artisan weaver in the town of Bolgatanga, Ghana in West Africa and is colored with plant extracts. You and your child are sure to find a use for this basket long after the Easter egg hunt ends.

Skip the plastic eggs and fill your child’s basket with eco-friendly goodies this year. You can help the Easter Bunny leave a smaller footprint while pleasing your children! For more ideas, please visit my post from last spring titled “Prayer Flags for Easter“.

Image courtesy of Stubby Pencil Studio.

I would ask my grandmother, “Why do those tiny dye-things need such a big box? I don’t even use the rest of the stuff, and I have my own crayons.”

To which she replied, “So people don’t steal them.”

Consequently, that answer was given to me many times over during childhood, yet I noticed rolls of breath mints and tubes of lipstick eluded this logic. Nevertheless, I was optimistic each year that my eggs would be just as bright and blemish free as those on the box (they never were), and continued to wonder what would happen if I ate one of the tablets. Odds were that it would not taste like a SweeTart, turn my mouth blue for a week, and could even lead to possible gene damage. Such is the industrialization of a holiday.

Having my own kids now, I’m faced with an obscene selection of egg decorating kits at the store. They come in three main varieties: licensed, glitter, and “swirl.” Personally, I would like to see this age-old tradition carried out less like a bling contest and more like a science experiment.

Eggs can be dyed naturally using a variety of fruits, vegetables, and spices. I recently found some helpful tutorials on the topic:
Natural Dyeing of Easter Eggs - Good general directions with a list of dye color sources.
Easter Egg Colors to Dye For! - A very extensive look at the process, as well as some neat decorating techniques.
The All-Natural Easter Egg Dyeing Experiment - Written by one of my favorite food bloggers, Gezellig Girl. Her results are pictured above.

For me, it just isn’t Easter without the smell of vinegar wafting through the house. I’m glad to report that this ingredient remains essential in most of these methods. It also enables kids to learn about natural pigments, and engage in a more challenging egg hunt.

Best of all, you can most certainly eat the dyestuff without worrying about what happened when they tested it on lab animals. The Easter bunny would be proud, since said experiments caused his genetic mutation into a giant talking basket enthusiast.

Marking the beginning of the Easter season, worshipers go to church on Ash Wednesday (often still recovering from Fat Tuesday) and get ash spread on their foreheads. The ash is a symbol of contrition and repentance. Then everyone is expected to give up meat and beer and act gloomy for the next 6 weeks. Sound like fun? No wonder Mardi Gras is so popular!

But when you think about it, a collective confession can be incredibly meaningful in light of our complicity in greenhouse gas emissions. The tradition of Lent has potential for inspiring action. In addition to repentance, the ritual of smearing carbon on faces can visually represent the carbon we are contributing in our daily lives. The following are some reformulations of the elements of Lent with a green focus. (These principles are intended to be helpful to people of any faith background or none at all.)

• Confession. You’ve been incredibly good this year. You’ve spent countless hours poring over the Green Options blogs. You’ve made many changes to your lifestyle. For the CO2 you are guilty of emitting, you have purchased carbon offsets. You’ve even worked on promoting public policy aimed at a greener tomorrow. It is OK to be proud of yourself for being well on your way to carbon neutrality. But it helps to participate in a rhythm, every now and then, once a year, looking at how far we need to go as a society. Now that green is mainstream, green-washing and half-a**ing our way to a warmer planet is a new concern. Even if I were carbon neutral, I am still throwing my sustainably earned dollar into a carbon-spewing economy. Small doses of intentional reflection and confession every now and then keep us grounded and healthy.
• Fasting. For those of us who don’t yet have a Nobel in our pockets, a certain amount of giving something up for a specified amount of time has a centering effect. By the way, if I ever get a Nobel Prize, I’m totally carrying it around in my pocket. Anyway, this practice provides clarity to see what we really need and don’t need. I learned how few luxuries I really need last summer/fall as I backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail for 4 ½ months, hiking from Maine to Georgia. I didn’t even take coffee because I didn’t want to carry anything unnecessary. Even when I don’t have to lug it around in a backpack, I still limit my coffee consumption. (Note: I’m certainly not a locavore fundamentalist. I adore all things tropical. I think Equal Exchange is a more than worthy alternative to abstinence!) Rather than thinking of it as austere self-denial to achieve some higher spiritual plane, I think of these “fasts” as temporary periods when I evaluate my consumptive habits. It helps me rediscover gratitude and happiness in non-material things. If you are a traditional Lent observer, you might think of going without meat as a way to reflect on the effects of factory farming on the environment. If you want to try something crazy, try going without corn—it’s more difficult than you think! The purpose is to go an extra step for a short period of time to foster a more mindful lifestyle year-round.
• Hope. Of course, the solemn and gloomy practice of observing Lent is tempered with the hope that Easter is coming, which offers the expectation that things will get better, and not just because on Easter we break our fasts. We’re working together toward better days ahead and believe that we can do it together. Ultimately, we’re envisioning a better future and then living into the vision. This yearly rhythm is a good way to stay sharp.
• More info: Christians Told: Give up Carbon for Lent

Photo credit: fish burger