Eggs, Is There A Difference? You Bet Your Sweet Ass There Is!

Haven't been here lately.  Not that I don't have plenty to say, I just don't have the time.  I have been spending a lot of time tending to my chickens.  Now that I have 30, there is a little more to do (a lot more poop).  They obviously drink more water and eat more grain.  Plus my chickens are pretty spoiled.  I make sure they have lots to do so they don't get bored and start attacking each other.  I really like taking care of the chickens and all that it entails.  I don't even mind shoveling the shit!  I can see however, why mass production and factory farms came about.  The more chickens you have, the more time consuming and expensive they become.  If I was raising my chickens just for income from the eggs I would be broke by now.  $2.00 a dozen does not even begin to pay for the feed and supplies I need to properly take care of them.  If I wanted to make money, I would make my operation more efficient; leave out a lot of the amenities that my chickens enjoy and charge more for my eggs.  If I do that, I decrease the quality and value of the egg.  Factory farms are around for the simple fact of supply and demand.  A low income family is not going to pay $2.00 a dozen for eggs from me.  They will buy them at the grocery store for $.85 a dozen on sale.  This is one time however that you get what you pay for.    You can buy "organic" "cage free" "free range" eggs in the grocery store and pay over $3.00 a dozen.  Most of the times in that case you are not getting what you paid for.  All of those terms are very ambiguous.  There are definitions of all of those by the USDA.  The producers can get around those definitions by interpreting there own version.  For instance, "free range" requires the chickens to have access to the outdoors.  My chickens definitely do.  They run all over my yard.  Mass producers can get away with calling their eggs free range if they have an open door that in theory the chickens can get outside.  That door may be on one end of a chicken house that houses 1000 chickens.  Yeah, the door is there and they have access to it, but the chickens at the other end of the chicken house are never going to make there way to the door to get out.  Even if they do get out, there isn't room for them to do anything and there is no vegetation for them to forage in.  It's kind of like interpreting the Bible.  People will skew the facts to how it will best serve them (that is whole other story I won't get into).  Product labeling is really a joke.  It's all about marketing and making money.  The only way to decipher the labeling is to read the ingredients list and know what you are looking for.  In the case of eggs you have no real way of knowing if the labeling is correct short of visiting the facility that produced them.

Am I promoting my eggs?  Not really, I can only serve a dozen or so people because my farm is very small.  What I am promoting is education regarding the food we buy.  Everyone (including me) runs to the grocery to get a few things with little regard to how it was made or produced.  We are letting these big corporations take over our lives and control our basic needs of nourishment.  We don't concern ourselves with how the cow was raised and processed for the hamburger we are buying.  We just know we need hamburger to make our chili.  I don't propose becoming fanatic and boycotting everything.  I just think people should be making more conscious choices about the food they eat.  If you have a choice to buy your food from local farmers do that instead of getting it from Walmart.  Changes don't have to be big to make a difference.  I probably won't become a vegetarian anytime soon.  I love meat too much.  I have however started to buy from a local farm that has grass fed beef.  It makes me feel better when I can say I made my own decision about what is good for me to eat, not what big factory says is good for me.

I Need Me Some Eggs

These last two weeks can't go by fast enough. I hate to wish my life away, but I need to get home. Yah, I miss everyone terribly but what I really miss are my eggs. Yes, my eggs from my chickens.

I remember when I first tried fresh eggs from a friends chickens, I couldn't eat them. Part of the problem from those eggs was that they were from Araucana chickens which lay blue eggs. In addition, whatever they fed them turned their yolks an almost neon yellow. They just seemed a little unnatural. So when I decided to raise chickens of my own I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to eat their eggs. That worry didn't last long when I tried them. It is amazing to me how much better they taste than store bought eggs.

I brought some of my girls eggs to Florida with me, but they are now gone. I actually had to buy old white eggs from the grocery. When I say old, I mean old. Grocery store eggs are probably already four weeks old by the time they are purchased by the consumer and most of their flavor is gone. I had one egg from my chickens left and the store bought eggs. I cooked them side by side. Their was no comparison. The funny thing now is that it grosses me out to eat the store bought eggs now that I know more about them and have had fresh eggs.

I'm only kidding about missing my eggs more than my family. The egg shortage is no where near the creamer fiasco which was close to a matter of life and death. If you don't know what I'm talking about with the creamer thing, then you haven't been following my blog. My blog is like a TV show; you have to read every post or you won't be able to follow the convoluted story line of randomness.

Any who.... I'm missing my girls and their ova.

Fun With Eggs

This is what I do to occupy my time when Joe is gone. I used cookie cutters to make the shapes. In case you can't tell, it's a butterfly and a flower. I wanted them to be able to fit on top of my english muffin. Mmmmmmmmmmm!