GranolaBox

Is an Egg is an Egg is an Egg?

The old me: How can there possibly be a difference between eggs other than some are bigger than others, and some are brown. Obviously the brown ones are healthier, simply because they’re brown. Growing up, we actually had an egg-man. Mr. James used to come every Friday night with a couple dozen of his fresh eggs. I always thought they were better, but that’s just because Mr. James brought them. Goo goo goo joob.

Last month, we bought some eggs from a local organic farm called Sweetgrass Farm. These eggs come from reasonably free range chickens. That means they get to run around a fairly large pen instead of spending their lives in coops. They plop their eggs anywhere they want and the farmers pick them up that way.

What’s more important is what the chickens are fed. Chickens from organic farms are fed only organic feeds. That’s huge. Wanna know what’s in many NON organic feeds? Have you eaten your breakfast yet? How about various parts of same species meat? ANY parts. Road kill and euthanized animals also qualify. Does manure and animal waste sound appealing? Animals, like humans need roughage… so how about plastic pellets instead of plant based sources? Finally there are antibiotics. Lots and lots of antibiotics. Some of these antibiotics contain arsenic, a known human carcinogen and poison. Perhaps the classic “Arsenic and Old Lace” should be “Arsenic and Your Breakfast.”

Okay, okay, enough of the PETA style propaganda. Go out, spend a little bit more money on the good eggs and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You’ll notice first that the organic, free range egg is tougher to crack. That’s because the shell is healthier. Plop the egg onto the skillet or into the mixing bowl. See that sunshine on a crisp morning yellow hue?

They taste better too. You might not notice the difference so much in cooking, but if you’re eating eggs for breakfast you’ll notice a huge difference.

Most of the bigger supermarkets offer some form of organic eggs, but not all are free range. They probably also came from a fair distance away and might not be totally fresh. I’m blessed with a local small-town grocery store that usually offers two varieties of local, organic eggs, although timing is everything since they disappear quickly from the store shelves.