In Germany, Maundy Thursday is known as Gründonnerstag, or ‘Green Thursday’, and is a day where Germans traditionally eat green-coloured vegetables.
While the UK has no equivalent for that, do we have a fruit or vegetable synonymous with Easter in the way that satsumas and Brussels sprouts are with Christmas?
Let’s weigh up the heavyweight contenders.
IN THE ORANGE CORNER
For Rodger Hobson, chair of the British Carrot Growers Association, there’s no competition: “Carrots are the Easter vegetable, of course they are,” he chuckles.
While Hobson admits no specific ‘Easter carrot’ campaign is lined up for this year, despite British carrots “tasting better than ever” thanks to favourable growing conditions, he tells FPJ it is something that could be explored in future years.
Perhaps this could be aided by Freshgro – a Sussex-based carrot grower and supplier which has done a lot of work on products aimed at children, such as Chantenay slices, and even has a Chantenay children’s marketing character called Tiny C.
IN THE BROWN CORNER
Jonathan Corbett, fresh produce marketing guru, comes from an alternative angle at the idea of an Easter fruit and vegetable: “Easter is not a holiday where fruit and vegetables are anywhere near as significant as chocolate, unlike, say, satsumas at Christmas,” he says.
“But it is a similar holiday to Christmas in the way that families sit down together to enjoy a meal. And, because of that, King Edwards potatoes are a huge seller in the run-up to both Christmas and Easter.”
This idea is backed-up by Lidl – a spokesperson for whom says it considers lines specific to Easter as those that correspond with traditional Sunday roast dinner vegetables.
Thus, the discount retailer promotes parsnips, potatoes and other similar vegetable lines for the Easter weekend, and sees a spike in the sale of these items.
IN THE GREEN CORNER
That’s not where Easter fresh produce ends for Lidl, though, whose spokesperson adds: “We are looking at an Easter herb offering, and have just reintroduced fresh rosemary. We will also be trialling thyme and sage again to fall in line with the traditional roast lamb dinner.
“Also, traditionally Easter is seen as the beginning of spring, so we would expect to see an uplift on spring and summer lines such as salads.”
Chris Hutchinson, of New Spitalfields Market-based salad wholesaler Arthur Hutchinson, echoes the latter point raised by Lidl: “Easter sales always depend on the weather, but it’s significant that it’s towards the end of April this year,” he says.
“If the sun is shining, and we get a good spring week, we’ll rock and roll, and have a brilliant Easter with really strong salad sales.”
Elaine Smith, of Florette, embellishes this point: she says 96 per cent of barbecues in the UK are salad-accompanied, and that a warm, late Easter could see myriad families getting together over a barbecue.
IN THE RED CORNER
But there is another contender to the throne.
Step forward, the strawberry.
Aided by a season which gets earlier by the year, and Easter taking place this year from 18-21 April, could a blood-red berry really be the fruit of the oldest and most important festival of the Christian church?
Mark Tate, chair of tenants at Birmingham Wholesale Market, reckons so: “Strawberries are a real Easter-time fruit, and seeing them is a sign that Easter is coming,” he says.
IN CONCLUSION
Like Velma Kelly in Chicago, coquettishly convincing pleasure-paralysed striplings that she has eyes only for them, before shimmying on to some other dumbstruck punter with an impish swish of a feather boa and a teasing wag of a leather-glove-clad finger, Easter casts ephemeral attention on several fresh produce items, without ever settling on one.
Judging by the consistent sales success of Brussels sprouts and satsumas at Christmas, though, the stage is set for someone to dominate – marketing bods, start your engines.
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