A Sure Sign Easter is Coming—Asbury Eggs are Here

Editor's Note: One of our bloggers for Cinnaminson Patch wrote about Asbury eggs. We decided to feature this story in our news section today.

Christian women have good eggs. Okay, let me rephrase that, Christian women make good eggs. Chocolate-covered coconut and peanut butter eggs that are enrobed in decadent chocolate then wrapped in purple and gold foil so you can tell them apart (gold being the peanut butter, of course).

In my town, signs start going up in the local stores about a month before Easter “Asbury Eggs are Here!!” Then, you know that the women from the have been very busy making thousands (60,000 to be exact) of these tasty confections. By the week before Easter, they are gone. Signs come down and if you weren’t smart enough to buy them ahead of time (and then find a way to hide them from yourself), you’re the loser in town.

I was recently in the seasonal aisle at my local supermarket picking up the favorites that go on the family Easter grass-covered plate, since the traditional baskets have been outgrown, when a conversation with an elderly women brought a new perspective. 

She was picking up a box of Zitner Butter Krak eggs. “Oh, good,” she said happily putting them in her cart. “The Butter Kraks are hard to find!” Apparently, the Butter Kraks are coconut cream eggs that have been double dipped in chocolate. I usually stick to Zitner's double coconut and Reese’s peanut butter eggs.

“Really?” I responded. “Oh yes,” she answered. “My family just loves them. I make baskets for all of my children and grandchildren and the Butter Kraks go first!"

“Well,” I said picking up a box, “I guess I should try them since you say they taste so good.” “Oh, no,” she responded. “I don’t eat them.” 

“You don’t?”

“No, I wait for the family to leave, and then I take out the Asbury eggs for my husband and me.” Wow, the old girl may be onto something!

I share my Asbury eggs with my family...well, kind of. I bury them under all of the other chocolate eggs and don’t necessarily point them out to anyone. But – they are on the plate. And it’s not just the taste of these chocolate Easter eggs that I like…it’s the thought of them! That they are made in the kitchen of a local church, in a small town, by a fellowship of women and men working together, touches me. 

Although I have attended services at the Asbury Methodist church on occasion, I wouldn’t be recognized and I really don’t know any members. But I know of them. And the picture in my mind of them rolling coconut cream and peanut butter into the shapes of eggs, sharing stories and laughter, reminds me of Easter mornings in a Sunday school, many, many years ago.

The local “church ladies” would prepare small paper baskets filled with chocolate foiled eggs and hand them out as we sat in our Easter Sunday finest, listening to the story of the resurrection while waiting to be allowed to remove our white gloves...and eat.

The world has changed in a million ways since those long past Easter Mornings. But it is comforting to know that some things haven’t changed at all. Good Christians all over the country, are working in the kitchens and basements of small churches keeping a tradition alive...at least they are in my town.

So, it is two weeks before Easter and while most people are heading out for Peeps and Cadbury Eggs, I will drive into town, under the blossoming trees, past the sprouting tulips, looking for my favorite sign of spring “Asbury Eggs are Here!”