Production is up


Good day today for the Australorps … Four Eggs … that’s 100% of them laying today! Yesterday we had three. We had a jumbo egg from their pen this past weekend as well. [notable since really big eggs are not often laid by younger layers, and the only other we had from them came the day before one of them died for no reason other than probable complications from too big of an egg coming through.]

In observing the Leghorns and Wyandottes, they are still not anywhere near laying time. Very pale combs and wattles, and the Leghorns are still dropping feathers as well.

All in all though it’s a pleasing situation, with at least 2 eggs a day for way over a week now. I have over a dozen fresh eggs backlogged. That’s just meaning there are more eggs than we’ve used for awhile. It’s easy enough to use a dozen eggs in one day around here. Other days we might go for nearly a week using very few, if any. Well, that’s only since production left us this summer. Normally when the laying season keeps us going, I use lots of eggs for breakfast and in bread. I stopped using eggs in bread over the summer.

Now I have eggs, but my Whisper Mill is out of service. Go figure. Makes sense.

I had been buying eggs from Harry’s off and on. Yuck. Not so bad, just not what I want. Well too, I wouldn’t mind it as much if they were local eggs, at least from the same state as being purchased in. At Harry’s we used to see Georgia produced eggs, but not since Whole Foods Market has more infiltrated Harry’s (They bought Harry’s a few years ago.) The thing I’m talking of is “local or regional production”. And since Georgia is the largest egg producing state … you’d think we’d see them in the stores. Well no, in the NE Atlanta area, that’s Harry’s, there are none. In the Publix near us, that’s in the boonies, the eggs are all shipped in from … yup … Florida. Worst case, they come from North Carolina. But come on, get those Georgia eggs fresh on the shelves.

I speak of good eggs, at least “free range” or “non caged” or “organic free range” etc. Eggs have a long-ish shelf life in refrigeration, but eggs are ALWAYS the best in the first week for their freshness , and great for hard boiling after that [as the skin membrane between the eggwhite and shell separates with egg aging]. Refridgerating eggs has given distributors the idea that it’s A-OK to put old eggs on the shelves of grocery stores. Why not just get them to market in ones own county, state, region, and get them there fresh, just a day or two or three old at most?

At any rate, eggs are fine at around 40-45 degrees maybe more, but as well, they CAN do alright short-term at room temperature, as I leave our eggs. They break down faster at room temperature, of course. It’s not as if though, that refrigeration keeps eggs totally fresh for two weeks because of refrigeration. My eggs stay nice for a week at room temperature. But not perfectly like “the day layed” Neither do eggs stay the same as “the day layed” or anything like it, when they are two or three or four weeks old in refrigeration since the day laid until they get on the shelf of the grocery store. Eggs break down from two variables: Temperature plus Time divided by itself and multiplied by 2 every few days until used or rots.

All things do this. Once they animals or people die, or fruit or vegetables are picked, milk is milked or eggs are laid or whatever … all things are broken down via an accelerated schedule once time goes on and on further and further from the inception event.

So then, regional production of eggs and sales in that area is right, IMO. But not only that, I would wish for all eggs to be from organic producers, not “Certified Organic” but what must now be called “Natural Good Practices”. Pastured layers are preferred. Most companies could figure out how to do it. Yup. Put the hens back on farms. Get them out of warehouses. In Georgia so many hens are in long low concrete houses. Poor things. Big old hen row houses on acres and acres of unused green pasture in many cases. Sad sight it is to me.

Hens are happy on grass, with bugs, sun, rain, wind, night, day, cold, warm, happy hens. They eat grass and weeds and bugs, that’s what gets the eggs tasting so delicate and wonderful. So yellow or orange. Taste and texture are delicate. Eggs sit high on whites, and are palatable to one whom usually doesn’t like fried eggs … and who’s that? Me. Backyard eggs I can eat fried. Storebought must be scrambled with stuff in them. I can only stand omlets made from backyard eggs.

So I am glad to have eggs being laid again! And look forward to a nice Bacon and Cheese filled omlet tomorrow. 🙂

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