Easter Eggs Most Of Year

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 2

Easter Eggs Most Of Year

Preparations for Easter begin in July and August for Mr and Mrs J, Tyerman, of Christchurch. This is because they are “Easter egg makers” and all their eggs are made by hand.

Their Easter eggs are the familiar sugar eggs, which are made from coloured icing sugar and set on to moulds. Nine sizes of eggs are produced commercially and retail at prices ranging from Is 9d to £4. The largest egg sold is about 20 inches long although Mrs Tyerman also has a mould which fashions an egg more than two feet long and 15 inches in circumference. This egg is too large for practical purposes and the icing has to be reinforced from the inside to prevent it from collapsing under its own weight.

Occasionally she makes up this large egg for organisations which want something eyecatching and attractive for a raffle. It usually weighs about seven pounds. Like the smaller eggs, it has its hollow centre filled with toffees.

First the icing mixture is prepared and put into a small hand-operated icing pump. Each mould is decorated sep-

arately and placed on a tray and put into an oven to cook. The eggs, now cooked, are still in halves which are then filled with toffees, joined with icing and decorated with handmade icing flowers, packed in celophane and sent to the retailer. As such an enormous amount of preparation goesinto even the tiniest egg, the two very small moulds are not used.

From Easter until July, Mr and Mrs Tyerman have a rest from Easter eggs to prepare the decorations used by commercial cake decorators, such as a plaque for a wedding cake, or an icing sugar angel for a christening cake. Mr and Mrs Tyerman observe strict factory hours in their small home factory at the back of their property in Beckenham, where they have been in business for almost 20 years.

Sugar Rationing

Life has not always been sugar and spice for the Easter egg business. When the business was in its infancy, sugar was rationed and Mr and Mrs Tyerman were allotted only one carton of piping sugar a week. At that time people used to bring their own icing sugar for their orders.

Broken eggs are not wasted but the scraps are sent to

chidlren’s homes and often the very large eggs are presented to children’s homes in Christchurch. Every year Mrs Tyerman and an acquaintance present an enormous egg to

St. Joseph’s Home. She finds out the number of boys and staff who will share the goodies inside the egg, and these are carefully counted so that everyone is treated equally. Mrs Tyerman’s one regret is that she has never been present to see the little boys’ faces when the egg is opened.

Eggs reach all parts of New Zealand and countries further afield but they are not packed at the factory in Beckenham because business is deliberately kept on a small scale.

“We only take as many orders as we know we can comfortably cope with,” said Mrs Tyerman. They do not advertise and their house is like any other house in their quiet suburban street, without notices or signs to suggest there is a factory at the back. “Please do not mention my address," she said.