While I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a great big chocolate Easter egg, my preference is definitely for lots of little ones. These little eggs are all Fairtrade (except the Green & Black’s ones which are organic) so you know that your choice of Easter chocolate is making the world of difference to someone’s life in a developing country.

If you like milk chocolate, there’s the choice of Divine’s milk chocolate mini eggs, mini eggs in a Fairtrade calico bag from Bangladesh, or Traidcraft chocolate mini eggs.

Or is dark chocolate more your thing? Divine also makes dark chocolate mini eggs or there’s Green & Black’s dark chocolate praline mini eggs.

If you just can’t make up your mind, there’s always Divine’s bag of 30 mixed chocolate mini eggs.

Today is the start of Fairtrade Fortnight, a celebration of Fairtrade products and the best time to make the change.  A Fairtrade branded bus will be touring the UK spreading the word (see the bottom of this post for details*), and there will be lots of other local events happening throughout the country.

The most important thing that you can do to support Fairtrade (and give farmers and producers in developing countries a fair price for their goods) is to choose products with the Fairtrade mark.  And right here at ShopGreen is a great place to start.   Once you’ve discovered the Fairtrade delights to be had, tell you friends about them and make the world a fairer place.

*Tuesday 26th Feb: Ipswich; Thursday 28th Feb: Leeds; Saturday 1st March: Sunderland; Sunday 2nd March: Glasgow; Tuesday 4th March: Liverpool; Thursday 6th March: Birmingham; Saturday 8th March: Cardiff; Sunday 9th March: Bristol.

Since the recent New York Times article about EcoMoms and the EcoMom Alliance, the web has been awash with stories of how mothers are leading the green fight and changing the way that their families live for the sake of their children’s future. In the States, mothers are organising themselves into networks and have switched the traditional Tupperware party for the EcoMom party, supporting each others efforts to go green and bringing more women into the environmental movement.

Women and mothers have the power to change the way households live, and their green purchasing decisions can make all the difference in a transition to a greener economy. ShopGreen is a good place to start looking for eco-friendly appliances, clothing, food and wine, gifts, and more.

It’s a little over a month away until Easter which falls rather early this year. It’s time to start thinking about where to get your ethically sourced Easter eggs. Here are some ideas.

Award-winning handmade papier mâché eggs, hand-painted by artists in Kashmir using traditional methods and local materials making each egg a unique piece of art. The inside of the egg is velvet-lined and it holds 12 delectable Booja Booja champagne truffles. They’re organic, dairy-free, gluten-free and utterly decadent. Each egg bought supports artists and their local communities in Kashmir. The ornamental 15cm papier mâché egg will make a beautiful keepsake.

The only egg with added Comic Relief. The Fairtrade Dubble Easter Egg set is made up of a 100g milk chocolate egg and a 40g bar of Dubble chocolate. The cocoa beans used to make these eggs are grown by a co-operative of 45,000 farmers in Ghana called Kuapa Kokoo. Many cocoa farmers have never even seen or tasted chocolate, but not these guys. Kuapa Kokoo co-owns the company who supplies Dubble eggs and they have a real input into the way that the company is run as well as a share of the profits.

A smooth dark 100g chocolate egg made with 70% finest Ghanaian cocoa and combined with 80g of dark chocolate covered Brazil nuts. This Divine Dark Chocolate Egg with Chocolate covered Brazil Nuts is also made by the Kuapa Kokoo co-op, and so you can be sure that they’re the ethical choice for Easter.

Even though there’s bright sunshine streaming through the windows this February, it’s still close to freezing outside and all that cold air squeezes through gaps in windows and doors to make us reach for the heating controls. Now one suggestion I could make is that you head to your wardrobe and grab yourself a nice thick jumper to keep you cosy and warm without spending any more on fuel bills. Here’s another idea. Get yourself some draught excluder and seal up those draughty windows and doors. It’s a very economical way to reduce your heating bill, and if you’re still cold once the draught has gone, go and get that jumper to put on.

Scotland’s eco-friendly folk-flavoured pop-star KT Tunstall is booked to perform two concerts for the Forestry Commission’s annual Forest Tour this summer. The tour consists of a variety of artists performing concerts in forests around the country.

KT is extremely committed to green issues. She has signed up to the GlobalCool campaign and even has her own 6,000-strong forest of trees in Scotland.

KT Tunstall will be performing:
Friday 6 June High Lodge, Thetford Forest, Near Brandon, Suffolk
Sunday 15 June Delamere Forest, Near Linmere, Cheshire
Tickets £27.50 (subject to booking fee) go on sale at 9.00am Friday 15 February
Information hotline: 01842 814612

Other artists who will be appearing on the Forestry Commission’s Forest Tour in 2008 are Crowded House, The Charlatans, James Morrison, Katherine Jenkins, Jools Holland and Status Quo.

With London to get a dozen segregated cycling highways and “borough cycling zones” in some of the “less-traveled” routes in the city, and the new higher congestion charges (as high as £25 per day for gas guzzlers), there’s never been a better time to take to the streets on your bicycle in the capital.

Ken Livingstone had this to say to Cycling Weekly: “People shouldn’t assume that this is cyclists taking something away from people with cars. This is aimed at people with cars, getting them to give up their car and actually cycle. And everybody who switches relieves road space. There is now such a tide of opinion, all the mayoral candidates are pro cycling, and they are all making it a central plank of their campaign. That would have been inconceivable eight years ago. There are some who thought cycling was going to die out. But now, having created a critical mass of more cyclists, it is now ready to go to the next stage.”

Our thirst for bottled water has increased to over 150 billion litres of water a year. That’s a lot of water being carted about on lorries and a huge number of plastic bottles being produced and then disposed of. If you’re not keen on drinking tap water because of the high levels of chlorine and limescale it contains, you can reduce these dramatically with a BRITA filter.

In the past, there have been issues with the waste, i.e. used filter cartridges, that are associated with using a water filter. The good news is that BRITA are now providing cartridge recycling points at a selection of high street stores. The new MAXTRA cartridges are 100% recyclable and deliver up to 150 litres of BRITA filtered water per cartridge - so one cartridge worth of water is the equivalent to hundreds of empty bottles. You are not only getting less limescale and less chlorine, but less waste too!

The final post of this little series of baby related posts, brought on by the birth of my first nephew, is a selection of gift ideas for new babies (and their mums).

Badger Mother & Baby Gift Set

This lovely gift set contains 3 lovely Badger balms that new mother’s will love for their babies. Sleep Balm as an after bath massage balm helps babies feel calm and restful. It works for mums too. Baby Balm prevents and soothes nappy rash and cradle cap. And Evolving Balm is great for stretch marks and wrinkles, mums will love it.

Little Green Radicals ‘I Only Eat Organic Turnips’ Bib

How sweet! Little Green Radicals bibs are made using organic and Fairtrade certified cotton, and they’re anything but boring.

Green People Organic Babies Gift Pack

A helpful little starter pack or travel pack of organic baby care products from Green People. The pack includes a Lavender Baby Wash, Mum & Baby Moisturiser, Baby Salve and Chamomile Baby Wash. I’ve used Green People products on my kids and have always found them to be of the best quality.

Don’t forget Mum…

Neal’s Yard Mother’s Bath Oil

New mums need time to relax. They spend all of their time taking care of their new baby and often don’t have enough time to themselves for a leisurely soak in the bath. This bath oil from Neal’s Yard would make a great gift, especially if you offer to do a couple of hours of baby sitting while mum takes some time for herself.

Breastfeeding is the most eco-friendly way to feed a baby. One of the wonderful things about it is that it doesn’t involve any plastic bottles that will end up in landfill one day. Breastfeeding also means no energy is needed to produce plastic bottles and formula milk, no inefficient land use and methane produced by cows, and the only energy used is your own. Forget sterilising paraphernalia, and having to haul bags of feeding equipment around too. Breasts are always there when you need them, and they serve up the perfect food for your baby, at the perfect temperature, no matter where you are or what time it is.

Environmental and convenience advantages aside, there are big health benefits to breastfeeding.

1. The mother’s antibodies will protect the baby from illness.
2. Breastfed babies are less likely to have allergies.
3. Breastfeeding reduces the rates of breast cancer and ovarian cancer in mothers.
4. Mothers who breastfeed lose weight more quickly after giving birth.

Breastfeeding is natural and most women find it easy to do, but there are times that mothers can do with a little help. Two products that I found to be invaluable while breastfeeding my children were Lansinoh, the only nipple cream that really works for sore nipples, and a super sized nursing pillow that kept me and my babies very comfortable while feeding. These two products are a great investment and will serve you well, even on days when it all seems a bit much, and if you’re a breastfeeding mother, I think you’ll know what I mean.