Everything Eggs
First a bit of housekeeping business about egg orders this week. I am taking a little Spring break from farm work for a few days to spend some time with my husband and kids. Any egg orders placed this week will be fulfilled on Friday. Feel free to order to reserve your eggs any time, just don't look for the white cooler at the end of the driveway until Friday. Enough business, let's talk eggs!
The Farmette kids are gearing up for Easter and lucky for them, the new hens are laying their sweet petite pullet eggs just in time for dyeing. A pullet is a young hen. The first eggs that she lays are petite in size. As she grows, so does the size of her eggs. I wrote post back in March about pullet eggs if you are curious about what makes laying hens tick. I have a limited quantity of pullet eggs available this week if your kids or grandkids want to give them a try. Even if you don't use them for Easter eggs they are the perfect size for a lunch box hard boiled egg or a single slice of French toast.
Some of my farmer friends mentioned that they had a little dip in sales this week. They told me folks were skipping their farm fresh brown eggs for some bright white grocery store varieties. Too bad their customers weren't savvy like you guys and know that you can dye brown eggs with colorful results like the photos above and below, all Fairytale Farmette brown eggs. In the past, my favorite way to dye brown eggs is with unsweetened Kool-aid packets like int he photos from last year above. Check out my Pinterest board on Eggs for "how to" directions. But this year I have been experimenting with Dying Easter Eggs naturally using veggie scraps on brown eggs. If you missed my demonstrations at the Davidsonville Green Expo or the Bowie Green Expo, here is a link to the instructions for how to Dye Easter Eggs Naturally.
So after you go to all this trouble to hard boil and dye the eggs, what are you going to do with all these Easter eggs? Ok before you groan when I say this, hear me out...egg salad. Seriously, egg salad, try these recipes from Food & Wine magazine. They will totally change your perspective on plain bland ol' egg salad. I ate the avocado egg salad last week for lunch, it was amazing. I subbed out pickled red onions for the red onions, wow!
Last thought on eggs, what make a really good quality egg? I met a lovely couple today taking a ride on Patuxent River Road on their tandem bicycle, how cool! We got to chatting about what chickens eat. I talk a lot about "the girls" eating insects and grass and foraging through compost piles (very important) but sometimes I fail to mention that laying hens typically rely on grain for the largest part of their diet. choosing the right feed for my hens really does effect not only the health of the bird but also the quality and quantity of eggs laid. I had just gotten back today from my feed supplier Ritter Family Farm in Skyesville, MD where I purchased whole grain feed from Homestead Harvest a Maryland grown chicken feed from the Ernst Family Farm in western Maryland. I decided to snap a few photos of the the feed because it LOOKS like identifiable grains and seeds. I'm so excited to be giving my business to another Maryland farm and I love that I can actually tell by looking what is in this feed rather than the typical tan pellet that is available.
