Farm eggs!

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
21

For those in the know…these “fresh” eggs degrade pretty quickly, IIRC. So it is essential you get them within 1-2 days otherwise I would assume you aren’t any worse off picking up eggs at your local small market/Trader Joes etc.

22

Duck eggs are the bomb. Great for baking, hard-boiling and egg salad especially. There’s a fantastic farmers market Saturdays in Roxbury, NY (Catskills) where we have our second home. Several choices for fresh chicken and duck eggs. The best part is the duck eggs are huge and are $5 a dozen. At my local Whole Foods, tiny duck eggs are $1 a piece.

23

I was going by memory, but I understood that banty (bantums) were a subset of chickens that were smaller than “farm chickens”. They include many breeds ie, Millifleur, Aracana, Silkies, etc. The bantums are fancy breeds. Here is a picture from my childhood with my nonwinning Millifleur Rooster (note my brother and sister and my neighbor all got prizes). My brother really looked like a happy farmer huh?



If anyone is (really) interested in auracanas here is a link I found…http://www.ameraucana.org/faq.html#TWO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

24

Tony, you could not be more wrong… these eggs, given their freshness, will outlast those at and grocery… by the time they get your grocery, they are 10 to 14 days old…the ones I got on sunday were hatched at the end of last week… you have about 30 days…

25

Scott you are right. Tony, respectfully that simply isn’t true.

Shell color is from the breed, Shell thickness and yolk color and flavor intensity reflects the living conditions and diet. Since last summer I’ve been getting two dozen a week from a friends’ Mom in Watsonville CA. for $5. I am now ruined when it comes to commercial eggs. Spring pullets produce smaller eggs, they also have greater yolk to white ratio. Local commercial organic eggs simply don’t compare. That’s because organic simply refers to feed, not conditions, and cage free is not the same as free range. Factory chickens fed organic feed can be marketed and sold as “organic”. An example of the dilution and exploitation of the term.

26

Hey all…I am glad I am wrong but I am simply relaying info I learned from stuart yaniger about farm fresh eggs and how quickly they degrade…Stuart’s a scientist and foodie and I trust him with serious food info. I’ll invite him to post here on the egg issue.

27

Hell, invite him to post, period.

Eggs are much more stable than you’d think, according to the people at an egg ranch in Hemet where I used to stop now and then. They told me eggs will keep for four months . . . at room temperature. I’m not inclined to test this theory, but that’s what they said.

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Bob - Stuart’s been invited. I sent him a link to the post and we’ll see if he comes out of hiding. The man is where he belongs in the land of right wingers…Texas!!!

29

30 days is what is written on the eggs we buy at the farmer’s market pretty much regardless of farmer. So, you probably have 32-33 days from the day the eggs were laid. The semantics of all of this is quite complicated. I think we can all agree that organic is better than commercial through free range/organic free range being the best. Cage free generally means that they are penned up but do have ample room to move and do have ample room for eating natural food.

Growing up we had our chickens in a coop. They locked the chickens up at night b/c of foxes, coyotes, weasels and the like. Raccoons and skunks would eat the eggs. We kept guinea fowl so that if there was a predator during the day, though rare, they would alert either someone at the farm or one of the dogs. If trouble comes around guinea fowl raise quite the ruckus. If memory serves at some point we had a couple of dogs that were good enough that they didn’t have to put them up at night.

John

30

EarthShine Farm eggs

31

As I had posted a year or so ago on Bob’s board, these eggs are hands down the best I have ever eaten. Its not just the colour and freshness (Tony, your friend is–respectfully–misinformed, scientist or not), its the smell, the earthiness, the garrigue (damn, I haven’t been in France more than 2 hours and listen to what’s coming out). Its that animale quality to them. To those who got eggs, do yourself a favour. Go to Fox & Obel (or wherever), get some 00 pasta flour, and make some fresh pasta with those eggs. If you want to go whole hog (or chicken as the case may be), make the pasta using Thomas Keller’s recipe for egg rich pasta.

Your life will never be the same.

Now I must go to the decanter of 2004 claret, fresh crusty bread, prosciutto, smoked salmon, cheese fruit and yoghurt Mr. Magrez’ staff just brought me as a repast from my travels. [highfive.gif]

I’m in Bordeaux for the GJE session…will be posting a bit as we have WiFi here at Pape Clement where I’m staying.

32

Who are you and what have you done with the real Jeff Leve?

33

ROFL! [rofl.gif] I KNEW that was coming!

Notice I haven’t posted any “Back to Bordeaux…” threads in Wine Talk. But if something interesting comes out of the 2006 tasting this week, I will humbly post on that. [big_boss.gif]

34

Do you mind sharing? There are few things I love in the way of food more than pasta and eggs!

My usual pasta is 2 cups general purpose flour, 3 eggs, a 4th yolk and a dribble of water…

35

You should try some fertilised eggs. I reckon happy chickens lay tastier eggs.

36

Just saw this (I’ve been in Bordeaux and just got back). Here is the recipe: You can use it for a variety of pasta uses:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pasta-Dough-for-Agnolotti-105858

37

You pay for fresh eggs? When I want eggs I just walk the 20 feet or so to my chichen coop and gather them up. :smiley: And yes we have various breeds that lay eggs in all sorts of colors.