A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For Easter, churches in Appalachia sell handmade chocolate eggs as fundraisers. Some churches have become famous for the treats. Reporter Zack Harold takes us into one of their kitchens.
ZACK HAROLD: When Pastor John Langenstein found out four years ago he'd been assigned to a new church in Clarksburg, West Virginia, everyone he talked to had the same response.
JOHN LANGENSTEIN: Oh, you're going to the egg church. It didn't matter who I was talking to - oh, you're going to the egg church. And I said, OK, well, that'll be interesting. And then, oh, you're not ready.
HAROLD: And he wasn't ready for the major chocolate egg operation at North View United Methodist Church. Every spring, church members gather in the basement kitchen to crank out shiny chocolate eggs.
SERENA ASHCRAFT: The molds are double-coated, yeah, and ready to go. We put filling in them. And we're doing maple nut this morning.
HAROLD: Serena Ashcraft is in charge today. I asked her how many eggs they usually make for Easter.
ASHCRAFT: Oh, my gosh, Nadine, how many do we make?
NADINE HOPE: Oh, it's between 6,000 and 8,000 of them.
ASHCRAFT: Yeah.
HAROLD: That's Nadine Hope (ph) with her in the kitchen. She's in charge of mixing the fillings for those 6,000 to 8,000 eggs.
ASHCRAFT: She's 84 years old.
HOPE: 87.
ASHCRAFT: 87? Oh, my gosh, that even makes more awesome.
HAROLD: Hope has been volunteering since the very first egg sale at North View in 1997.
HOPE: The people are dead that I started with. And they just said, we're going to do Easter eggs, and do you want to help? And I says, sure. Here I am.
HAROLD: North View's eggs come in six flavors, coconut, cherry nut, maple nut, peanut butter, Butterfinger and solid chocolate.
LANGENSTEIN: These are the same recipes we've been using for 26 years.
HAROLD: Pastor Langenstein says they make eggs three days a week starting in January, all with volunteer labor from the congregation of about a hundred people. They spread melted chocolate in the molds, add the filling and box up the finished eggs for sale.
LANGENSTEIN: All generations coming in. Last year, our youngest person helping out with eggs was 6 years old. And our oldest was - I think you win that, Nadine, 87.
HAROLD: North View eggs sell for $3 to $9 apiece, depending on the size. They're a big fundraiser for the church and an Easter time delicacy in these parts. They rarely give them away. Even broken eggs sell for half price. But in the name of journalism, they let me have a taste.
OK, here's a Butterfinger.
ASHCRAFT: (Laughter).
HAROLD: It tastes like a Butterfinger.
ASHCRAFT: I told you.
HAROLD: It's peanut butter and candy corn?
ASHCRAFT: Yeah.
HAROLD: The origin of the church-made chocolate Easter egg is kind of hazy. They appear to have first shown up in the mid-20th century in central Pennsylvania before spreading through the rest of central Appalachia. There are other churches all through West Virginia that make and sell chocolate easter eggs, but North View is the best known.
LANGENSTEIN: To my knowledge, we are the biggest. If there is a bigger, they're not advertising as well as we are.
HOPE: (Laughter).
HAROLD: They sell their eggs around town at beauty parlors, car dealerships, tire shops and even the courthouse. They also ship them across the country. But for volunteers, it's less about the money.
LANGENSTEIN: Other than the fact that, you know, obviously, it helps support the work of the church, is it's just fun. For as much work as it is and as much as a taskmaster Serena can be, we get, you know...
HOPE: We laugh. We joke.
ASHCRAFT: Yeah.
HAROLD: For this small congregation, community and fellowship is worth the long days on the Easter egg production line. For NPR News, I'm Zack Harold in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILLIAM RYAN FRITCH'S "A TRANSIENT COMFORT")
MARTÍNEZ: You can learn more about how the North View Easter eggs are made on the podcast the Daily Yonder.
(SOUNDBITE OF WILLIAM RYAN FRITCH'S "A TRANSIENT COMFORT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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