Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns
Seasonal Foods and Food Festivals in April

April tends to be dominated by Easter but, apart from Chocolate Easter eggs and Hot Cross Buns, we have fewer traditional dishes to mark the festivities.

But those two items do dominate the shops this month.

In the case of Easter Eggs, they've probably been hanging around on the shelves since shortly after Christmas. Why anyone would want chocolate that's several months old is beyond me.

If I must have chocolate Easter Eggs let them be freshly made from top quality chocolate by master chocolatiers.

And despite it now beginning to be spring, there aren't many locally grown vegetable around yet.

Purple sprouting broccoli is often one of the first new vegetables I get from our organic box, along with the herb you can find in the dark: wild garlic.

If you've never seen, picked or tried wild garlic, take a walk through a wood near you in April and May. Just follow your nose ... or look for the flowers. You're bound to find large clumps or even a whole carpet of the fragrant plants.

The chopped leaves add a wonderful aroma to melted butter, which is great with sprouted broccoli. It's a very civilised plant, wild garlic. You can use generous amounts of it either in salads or in your cooking, and while you enjoy all the delicious garlic flavour nobody will be the wiser two hours later.

Crab is also at its peak this month and can be found all the way round the coast. Crabs from Cromer, in Norfolk, are perhaps the best-known. Buy them from the crab shacks along the shore or find them ready dressed or potted at your local supermarket. Potted crab makes a superb lunch with little more than fresh, crusty bread and a few fancy salad leaves.

And what about those Hot Cross Buns? These days they tend to outlive the Easter celebrations. You can pop into your local supermarket in the week before Christmas and easily pick up a packet, which surely shows how popular they really are. Next time you're having some, try them - not with the usual fridge-cold butter - but a slice of dry, slightly crumbly Cheshire or Wensleydale cheese. It goes surprisingly well!

And before we forget, April is also the time for the first of the bigger food festivals:

Lancashire Food and Drink Festival

This food festival is being held at Accrington Town Hall and will be showing off some of Lancashire's finest produce.

Undoubtedly, black and white puddings will be around for tasting, as will immaculately smoked fish and fresh seafood.

Cookery demonstrations will show off other Lancastrian delicacies and when you've tasted a little too much, you can work off the excess by watching the street entertainment or with a spot of dancing.

Wear Valley Food Festival

Auckland Castle, which has been the home of the Prince Bishops of Durham since the 12th century - provides both the backdrop and the stage to the largest food festival in the north-east of England.

In 2008, almost 20,000 people visited it's stalls and tried locally and regionally produced meat, pickles, cheeses, soups and sausages. Cookery demonstrations and a large selection of Art and Craft stalls add to the day's entertainment.

And where else can you have tea in the Throne Room of a Prince Bishop?

For dates, opening times and directions to this popular food festival check out Visit Northeast England's wonderful website.

Exeter Food Festival

This food festival features anything that's good and tasty in the southwest of England.

Find many local specialities - such as locally grown tea and chillies, extremely tasty cheeses, olives and ciders - as local suppliers turn out in force to show off their products. The festival takes over Northernhay Gardens and Exeter Castle with stalls, food and drink pavilions, a cookery theatre and a Food is Fun marquee for the kids.