"In 2017 My True Love Gave To Me...
A Dozen Farm Fresh Eggs"
(11 rows of veggies, 10 friendly neighbors, 9 pounds of pickles, 8 fruit trees planted, 7 successful craft shows, 6 animal rescues, 5 rolling acres, 4 happy farmers, 3 playful kitties, 2 gay roosters, and a home of our very own)"
I had always heard farm fresh eggs were different than store bought, but I had never experienced that for myself before moving back to Wisconsin 5 years ago. Immediately upon arriving at our rental home in the country we got to start collecting eggs from the huge flock of chickens on the property. I found out quickly everything I had been told was true! Not only are farm eggs beautiful colors, ranging from tan and brown, to off white, and even green and blue. The mixed flock on our property provided an array of eggs in different sizes and colors. The yolks are so orange, not the pale yellow of the grocery store variety. With a few ducks on property, each spring we also got a handful of huge duck eggs, so rich in texture, I loved those the best.
Ani was only 2 when we left Las Vegas and did not have much experience or memory of eggs. When the temperatures outside started getting colder and the light of day grew shorter and shorter, the eggs stopped coming in such abundance, and eventually not at all. The first time I was in need of store bought eggs I purchased a dozen of Eggland's Best. Are you familiar? I guess I just expected your average dozen large, white eggs, but I wasn't aware they stamped each one with red ink, that looked strange to me...and especially strange to my young daughter. When I pulled them out to prepare them one morning she approached me and asked, "Mommy, what are those?". I said, "They're eggs". Noticing their stark whiteness to which she was completely unfamiliar, she asked, "Are they made of paper?". I laughed a little and silently thought to myself, "We're doing something right".
The way we have trained ourselves to approach shape and color when it comes to food astounds me now that I see it all coming straight from the source. Carrots grow in all shapes and colors, and some are deliciously ugly. Tomatoes aren't really perfectly round. And eggs, they are never the color of white paper. Ever. Our food is genetically engineered, bleached, sanded, artificially colored, and otherwise modified to look "nice" for the grocery store, many times at the expense of the nutritional value, and the safety and health of the animal and earth.
In June we purchased day old chicks to raise as layers. We got 4 different breeds: Rainbow Easter Eggers, Jersey Blacks, Americanas, and Rockford Pullets. We started with 16, 2 died within days. 14 were hens, 2 roosters. The Jersey Blacks are dual purpose birds, the roosters came from that breed, so we plan to raise meet birds next summer into fall...if I can get MY guts up to pull theirs out, again. They have become a beautiful flock of birds, and are finally starting to lay enough eggs that we may be getting them all winter, perhaps even enough to sell. With any luck, we won't have to resort to eating paper eggs.
Ani was only 2 when we left Las Vegas and did not have much experience or memory of eggs. When the temperatures outside started getting colder and the light of day grew shorter and shorter, the eggs stopped coming in such abundance, and eventually not at all. The first time I was in need of store bought eggs I purchased a dozen of Eggland's Best. Are you familiar? I guess I just expected your average dozen large, white eggs, but I wasn't aware they stamped each one with red ink, that looked strange to me...and especially strange to my young daughter. When I pulled them out to prepare them one morning she approached me and asked, "Mommy, what are those?". I said, "They're eggs". Noticing their stark whiteness to which she was completely unfamiliar, she asked, "Are they made of paper?". I laughed a little and silently thought to myself, "We're doing something right".
The way we have trained ourselves to approach shape and color when it comes to food astounds me now that I see it all coming straight from the source. Carrots grow in all shapes and colors, and some are deliciously ugly. Tomatoes aren't really perfectly round. And eggs, they are never the color of white paper. Ever. Our food is genetically engineered, bleached, sanded, artificially colored, and otherwise modified to look "nice" for the grocery store, many times at the expense of the nutritional value, and the safety and health of the animal and earth.
In June we purchased day old chicks to raise as layers. We got 4 different breeds: Rainbow Easter Eggers, Jersey Blacks, Americanas, and Rockford Pullets. We started with 16, 2 died within days. 14 were hens, 2 roosters. The Jersey Blacks are dual purpose birds, the roosters came from that breed, so we plan to raise meet birds next summer into fall...if I can get MY guts up to pull theirs out, again. They have become a beautiful flock of birds, and are finally starting to lay enough eggs that we may be getting them all winter, perhaps even enough to sell. With any luck, we won't have to resort to eating paper eggs.
Our new flock, a few weeks old
The red shed, turned chicken coop
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