by Why You Don’t Want to Buy Organic Eggs at the Grocery Store was the title of an article recently delivered to my inbox. Basically, the article revealed industry requirements in readying eggs for market. Specifically washing eggs in chlorine baths, or other harsh chemicals, and then coating them with mineral oil.
One of the first things I learned from the resident farm-pro down the road, is that washing eggs opens them wide up for contamination, which is why commercial producers have to coat their eggs with mineral oil. With 7,500 pores or openings in the eggshell, it’s best to leave intact the protective bloom, or waxy coating that God intended to protect the egg from harmful bacteria.
Spot-washing here and there is how I’ve always dealt with unwanted, errm…*smears*…but come to find out, the best way according to the above article, is to wash those spots off with warm water (20 degrees warmer than the egg) that’s been mixed in a 3:1 ratio with vinegar. Just like my grandma used to do it! (Read the above article to find out why)
We have 39 organic laying hens, and we sell about 10 dozen eggs a week–very small scale. But what you see is what you get. Our chickens free-range from early in the morning till dark, from their chicken “barn” with its two doors flung open wide. We supplement their free-ranging with organic feed that’s been mixed with Fertrell’s Nutri-balancer. This organic supplement contains 10-20% more nutrients than what the USDA requires, plus kelp meal, probiotics, chelated minerals (makes the minerals more bio-available), and phosphate, which enhances the layer’s absorption of calcium for strong shells.
With organic eggs at the store costing anywhere from $4/dozen in our area, you might want to find a local farmer near you who does things the common sense way. Query him to know exactly what you are buying.
For more on how good free-range eggs are for you compared to your typical grocery store variety, visit Mother Earth’s Chicken and Egg page. I like to print this off and share it with my new egg customers. Most people can’t believe that pastured (free-range) poultry eggs can boast of the following when compared to their grocery store counterparts:
• 1⁄3 less cholesterol
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene
Happy News for the Kiddos: Did you know that out of the 69 billion eggs produced annually, only 2.3 million of them are contaminated with salmonella. That’s .003 %, or 1 in 30,000 eggs. Go ahead and enjoy that raw cookie dough! Salmonella infections are typically found in commercially raised hens. Sick chickens lay salmonella contaminated eggs. So buy high quality, cage free, organic eggs from a local producer and your risk of salmonella disappears!
One more thing before I sign off…yesterday we butchered around 60 chickens with the neighbors, along with another family’s help. This other family had helped friends of theirs process chickens just a week or two prior.
(This chicken killing thing is catching on…)
Anyway…the point is, this family told us how two families brought their birds to be processed, one family had fed their broilers organic feed, the other family hadn’t. The organically fed birds had more fat and healthier livers than the non-organic birds. Believe me, if you have ever butchered chickens, the liver tells the whole story. They should be dark and smooth, not spotted, green, enlarged, etc.
I’m telling you, God created us and our environments, and man keeps messing with a good thing! No antibiotics or GMO feeds for my birdies!
Get thyselves educated! We ARE what we EAT.
Eggsactly!
In addition to the organic grain ration and Fertrell’s Nutri-balancer, those hens of Mary’s are also getting Aragonite – a coral based calcium that makes those eggshells tough as nails. Good egg layers need lots of calcium, because it’s going out of them in producing those beautiful eggs. Customers often let their kiddies carry the eggs to the car, and inevitably a youngster will drop a dozen now and again. Customers gasp, but are always surprised to discover that often there isn’t a single egg broken, or maybe only one that cracked.
Good cooks have to re-learn how to crack an egg with real farm raised organic pastured eggs. It takes some effort to do it. Chefs marvel to discover there are almost never any “cracks and leakers” to throw away, and that recipes go farther with these eggs than the cheaper supermarket substitutes. Real eggs taste better, are better for you, go farther, and have additional benefits that make them well worth the price.
And when you buy direct from the producer, you are supporting a local farmer, not an Agri-biz mega-corporation, providing a future for healthy birds, healthy eggs, and healthy consumers!