There are not too many things that say "farm" more than an old reused egg carton bursting with brown speckled farm eggs.
Everyone is familiar with eggs. You know that eggs are quick to prepare, highly nutritious and packed with protein. On top of all their nutritional benefits, when you buy farm eggs it can do your heart good to know that the eggs you are feeding your family are from hens that are free ranged on pastured and those eggs contain rich golden yolks from hens busy chasing grasshoppers.
Despite that all that knowledge, if you buy farm eggs, you may be getting a few things you don't expect!
Before you sign yourself up for farm eggs (or farm egg Bingo as I sometimes think of it!), give this a read:
When you open your egg carton, besides delicious eggs, you should also expect to find:
1. Variety
When you buy your eggs from the grocery store you can bet your boots that they will be white (or brown) and of the exact same size, shape and texture. I don't even know quite how they do it because chickens are not machines!
Farm eggs, like our chickens, are all a little bit different. There is a huge spread of colours, from white and creamy to chocolatey brown, and from dark olive green to light sky blue. You can expect freckles and speckles and smooth ones and rough ones. I have even found mini eggs so small that they have no yolk, and double yolkers so large that I can't even begin to close a carton on them. Our birds, like people, are all unique and I think part of the beauty of farm eggs is that they are different too.
2. Freshness
This seems like a good thing, but it does have some effects on the eggs you that might not realize.
First of all, as eggs are made in the tract of the chicken, a bit of lining can catch in the egg leaving you with a "blood spot" or "meat spot" in the egg. One reason you won't find this in grocery store eggs is because they have had time to age a bit and the blood spot has had time to be reabsorbed. If you find an egg with this oddity, you can remove it with a knife if you are bothered by it, or just eat it. I find it doesn't leave anything too noticeable once the egg is cooked. A common misconception is that the egg was fertile, but that is not so. You can just think of it as a sign of freshness.
The other thing you may discover about fresh eggs is that they can be really hard to peel! I find it can differ a bit on the colour of the egg too. Before you boil up a pot of fresh farm eggs, try adding a tablespoon or two of baking soda. Your eggs will peel much easier!
3.Dirt
Now this would seem like a bad thing, but again it has some effects that you may not realize.
Grocery store eggs are clean, very clean! They have been washed and chemically sterilized and it would be very unlikely to find a piece of hay or a bit of feather stuck to them! There have been some articles like this
Why American eggs-would-be-illegal-in-a-british-supermarket-and-vice-versa floating around about how washing eggs is not a world wide tradition.
Washing eggs can have some consequences for contamination, especially relating to the longevity of the egg. When an egg is laid it is coated with a quickly drying substance sometimes refereed to as its "bloom" or
cuticle. It is basically an antibacterial coating that seals the porousness of the egg and keeps bacteria out. By washing an egg you lose that coating and also risk forcing bacteria into the egg while washing. That is why washed eggs need to be refrigerated. An unwashed egg does not need to be refrigerated and can actually last over three months out on the counter.
I do my very best to make sure my eggs do not need to be cleaned before they even reach the house. This includes the coop set up so nesting boxes do not get roosted or slept in, changing box bedding daily and adding hay bedding to the coop all winter long so the chickens feet stay clean. Despite that, there are eggs that need a little cleaning. If an egg needs more than a feather picked off, I use plain warm water to prevent leaching due to temperature difference, and an antibacterial cloth. I want them to look nice an useable, but with the most minimal washing possible.
4. Odd eggs
We do get some odd eggs around here. If they are too odd (like an egg without a shell!) I will pass them on to the animals, but if they are only a little odd they may end up in your carton. There can be lumpy, misshapen, crooked, bumpy ones and more! One day I am going to make a Bingo sheet for our family and make a stamp for each odd egg. As in: "Hurray! I got an extra long one today! Now I have a BINGO!"
This website is a neat one to have a look at. It describes the egg tract and how each odd egg gets put together:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/01/how-hen-makes-egg-egg-oddities.html
I have seen almost all of these odd things from in my coop, so don't be surprised to find one in your carton!
5. Unreliable availability.
This is something we strive to avoid, but like we said before, chickens are not machines. They have times that they go through a moult during the year and their production will drop. The seasons and the shorter daylight will also effect their laying. We have chosen not to use artificial lighting to boost production so our layers will take a natural break with the seasons. We also don't cull our flocks very readily so we do have birds who are past (some farther than others!) the traditional year or two of efficient productivity.
6. Mislabeled Eggs
This may be common sense I hope! Our egg cartons are all recycled, some times a few times over, so our eggs are all thoroughly mislabeled. Don't be surprised to have your eggs labelled "Large White" and find that the carton cannot even be closed over the XXL rainbow coloured eggs inside. We also had a tricky carton circulating that had "boiled eggs" written on it in pen!
7. Connection
When you pull out your eggs to make a meal, I hope most of all that you can enjoy the connection of knowing exactly where they are coming from. I love that my little ones can go through the nesting boxes and pick the littlest eggs just for themselves for breakfast. Sometimes as I cook them, my little one will say "Oh! I forgot to thank the chickens!" I hope that this connection to the farm can be there for your family too. I hope you find something real, old fashioned, and wholesome in each carton of farm eggs you bring home.
