Breakfast is on the hens

My apologies - today's chores literally didn't end until five minutes ago. When homesteading, you'll have that sometimes! I am just beyond exhausted - this morning consisted of walking dogs, harvesting blackberries, doing a full house clean, lots of laundry, cooking and more cooking, and buying supplies to build new houses for the sled-heads this weekend.

So, in retrospect, it was a good thing I had a big breakfast! I cooked up two of my homegrown eggs, one white and one brown. Whisked them with a little milk, sea salt, and fresh-ground black pepper... and scrambled them up on the stove. Followed that up with a pineapple-and-carrot smoothie, courtesy of my much-loved, refurbished Vita-Mix stand blender. (I know pineapple and carrot sounds awful, but believe me, it's actually really good...)

Well, let me back up a bit first. When I first cracked the eggs, I was astonished at the rich, dark yolk color, and firm whites. Just to make sure I wasn't seeing things, I went ahead and cracked an organic, cage-free egg that I bought from Trader Joe's, to compare. This is what I saw:

Homegrown eggs -


Store-bought egg -


It really makes one wonder what the organic, "cage free" birds must be eating to have such pale yolks and runny whites... or are the eggs just not that fresh? My birds are raised on organic whole-grain layer feed, supplemented with cracked corn and oyster shell, and given access to our entire 3 acres of yard, pasture, and woods to forage for greens. I hear it's all the beta-caratene in the greens that give the eggs that dark orange color. Also, apparently studies have shown that eggs from truly free-range hens have 1/3 less choresterol and lots more of the "good stuff" like omega fatty acids.

Anyway, enough rambling, I'm probably preaching to the choir here anyway. Back to today's egg tasting. When I cooked up those little eggs, this is what I got...



For all appearances, a completely normal plate of scrambled eggs. But the taste was just phenomenal! You don't realize what a storebought egg is lacking until you've tasted a fresh farm egg. I'm not even sure how to explain the difference, but it was there and it was significant.

I really can't wait to give these eggs a try in pasta-making and baking... not to mention quiche and souffle. If the results are as good as today's breakfast, all that hard work of raising chicks, building a pen, and hauling gallons of water out to the coop will be more than worth it.