Saturday, April 04, 2009

Eggs - They do a Body Good. Er, wait.

Eggs. My, do we have eggs. We're getting upwards of 4 dozen per day. That's a lot of eggs. YOU try to push 4 dozen eggs on folks every day. It's getting to where people avert their eyes when they see me coming with my cooler strapped to my back. But I have my strategy... "Your first fix dozen is free." Next thing, they'll be jones'n for more. You wait.


Every day we venture to the farm, don our sh*t-kickers, and head into the trenches barn. The hens brrrrrAWK-awk-awk-awk-awk at us as we enter, some scurrying away, other ambling toward us in curiosity. Or in high hopes for stinky compost bucket goodies.

Something else scurried the other night, too. My dog went NUTS and about tore through a wall trying to get whatever it was. The boys followed her nose and, peering with flashlight under a ledge, said, "Hey, there's a little hole there!" I told them to shush and get back to work as uncontrollable shudders ran up and down my spine. I'll collect eggs. I'll water horses. I'll toss in hay for cows. Hell I'll even drag a dead cow to the side of the road if I have to. I draw the line at rats.
My evening routine now includes washing eggs to sell. I line up the full cartons and grab some damp cloths and wipe down each egg, making sure to discard the ones with cracks. I don't mind the chore, and I get a kick out of the different colors and sizes of eggs.

In other news, Laura really needs a life.

I took pictures of the eggs the other night so I could share with you the array of sizes and colors.

Did it just get really, uncomfortably quiet in here or is it just me? You still there? Hello?... hello... hello...

For perspective, I placed each egg next to my thumb ring. Yes, I said thumb ring. Remember - I'm not a farmer, I'm a poser.
There are smallish brown eggs. And larger brown eggs. Brown eggs come from the breed that lays brown eggs.


There are also white eggs. From the breed that lays white eggs.

And the prettiest light-green eggs. From the breed that ate too much grass. *burp*

Do chickens eat grass? Do they burp? I must know.

There are also these "Oooh Ahhh" eggs. These big eggs are called "Oooh Ahhh" eggs, according to my sweet, prim grandmother, because when the hen is pushing the egg out she says "Oooooooh" and once the egg is out she says, "Ahhhhhhh." My grandma, she's a stinker. And that isn't the half of it.

There are even these pretty speckled eggs.

And here they are all lined up so you can really see the range in size, seeing as my thumb ring perspective didn't give any - how do you say it? - perspective.


Eggs. They do a Body Good. I know that's not their slogan, but I'm breaking the mold.
I'm a farmer with a thumb ring.

7 comments:

Unschoolers Rock the Campground said...

How nice to start my dad giggling ;)

Vicki said...

I stumbled upon you recently and you have quickly risen to one of my fahves!

I was wondering about the egg washing, though. Is that what your mom does, too? I have a How to Raise Chickens book and we stopped washing our eggs after I read in it to NOT wash them. The water breaks down the protective barriers and won't allow the eggs to stay fresh as long. It does seem gross to not wash them, though. I'm gonna have to look into that some more. Can't believe everything I read, right?!

Happy farming!

Vicki said...

This is the best wash vs not wash debate I came up with. Just in case you really wanted to know like I did. Which you probably didn't but I will bore you with anyway. :)

http://notesfromchickenland.blogspot.com/2008/05/washing-eggs-or-not-primer.html

Don't you just love farm sitting?

piscesgrrl said...

Hi Vicki - welcome! You are absolutely right. It's better to not wash the eggs. But, as you can imagine, most people get a little twitchy at that idea. Especially the kinds of folks who don't like their food to have any resemblance to the animal it came from. There is a small fridge just inside the barn door where folks can leave money and grab eggs and those aren't washed. We do, however, separate out the especially dirty ones and either toss them or use them ourselves. There's a sign on the fridge explaining that the eggs are not washed or sorted by size.

They really only need a swipe - like how you clean mushrooms. I find a slightly damp cloth works fine and often only wash my eggs just before I'm going to eat them.

The protective coating does allow them to stay fresh longer, but most people don't keep them too long before eating. And, when you consider that store-bought eggs are probably already a few weeks old, you could wait several weeks and still be better off than those.

Fresh eggs are harder to peel when hard-boiled. If it's hard to separate the egg from the shell, you know have a fresh egg!

denise said...

Oh eggs. How great you get fresh ones! We get eggs every Wednesday from a friend who raises hens and ducks. The boys love all the shapes, colors and sizes. We have a LOT of duck eggs this week, so will be dyeing those! I love the blues and greens the most. :)

Not June Cleaver said...

LOL Laura! In that last pic you should have shown the thumb ring on your thumb for maximum effect!

You go grrrl.

Madeline Rains said...

ok, you need to farm full time and blog about it. Just to keep us happy. : )

I can't imagine NOT washing the eggs. They are covered in smelly poop, often. We wash them in a very mild all natural soap and they stay fresh a long time. I'll have to read Vicki's link. Hi Vicki!