Have you ever wondered how your farm-fresh eggs compare to the regular supermarket ones?

Ad for Eggland's Best Eggs in today's paper. Says these eggs come from hens fed a unique, patented, all-natural, all-vegetarian diet with no animal by-products. They are high in vitamin 3 (7 times more than ordinary eggs) and have 25% less saturated fats than regular eggs (total fat 4g; cholesterol 190mg/63% DV) plus contain 3 times more Omega 3 polyunsaturates than a regular egg.

The eggs are aimed at a cholesterol conscious diet as long as they are eaten in place of more fatty foods. (Guess there goes the bacon or sausage.)

I prefer farm-fresh eggs, not for any particular health aspect, but because they at least have a taste compared to regular eggs. When my younger sister first married her second husband they lived for a while on his parents small farm in MO. She said the eggs tasted funny to her at first. Perhaps it was because she was not use to eggs having a taste at all.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 17, 2000

Answers

People comment that my eggs are so thick and yellow. Actually, orange. When you cook them, the yoke doesn't run all over. Any customers know that the oldest my eggs are is two weeks. Who knows how old store bought are? And it seems my son doesn't have an allergic reaction to my eggs. Interesting, isn't it?

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), September 17, 2000.

I believe with all those "things" that are or are not, in these eggs it would make me wonder if they are worth eatin. But--on the other hand regarding farm eggs, I just can't eat'm. I remember years ago how some people would let those chickens run loose to eat anything. Remembering the old "privy" with the "trap door" on the backside. Those doors were raised up to clean out the outhouse through. A few people would prop those doors up for the chickens to "do their work" and lessen the work for man to do besides saving money on chicken feed. It's enough to make me sick just thinkin about. I find it almost impossible to eat store bought eggs. I know it's not that way anymore but - old habits die slowly and sometimes not at all! Matt. 24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), September 17, 2000.

Ken, I have my much loved departed mother to thank for my lifestyle and my love of all farm produce. She always knew where to get "real milk" the kind that comes in gallon jars and the cream rises to the top and "real eggs". We had chickens in the backyard even tho we lived in town. I think the "store bought eggs" are nasty. And Hoot, come on, outhouses are illegal here in Kansas, and my chickens have to eat store bought feed, which they supplement with bugs and scraps and greenery they scratch up. I pity the poor chickens that are kept in small cages with their beaks cut and the lights on 24 hours a day and are axed when the pathetic things burn out and stop laying. It would take a human to make a chickens life unbearable. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), September 19, 2000.

Wonder what is in the special diet they're feeding their chickens? I suspect a lot of us would quibble with their definitions of "all-natural" and "all-vegetarian". However, maybe there's some hope for the quality of our store-bought food yet.

And I once sold a dozen eggs to a family-they threw them out. Eggs didn't "look" right, yolks were too yellow. Sigh. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), September 19, 2000.

HI, WE RAISE FREE RANGING CHICKENS ON OUR SMALL FARM. ALL OUR CUSTOMERS ENJOY WATCHING THE CHICKENS PECK AND LOVE THE EGGS. OUR CHICKENS BOTH HENS AND ROOSTERS WOULDN'T HARM ANYONE. WHEN WE SERVE EGGS FOR BREAKFAST EVERYONE RAVES ABOUT THEM. I GREW UP ON A FARM WITH MANY CHICKENS AND TURKEYS. I'M TRYING TO HOLD ON TO THE TRADITION. HOWEVER, IN CENTRAL NEW YORK THERE TRYING TO IMPOSE A $350, FINE IF YOUR ROOSTER CROWS AND MORE. IT SEEMS THE CITY PEOPLE WANT TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY WITHOUT THE NOISE. WE WERE HERE FIRST. OH WELL/ANYWQAY WE ALSO SELL COLORED EGGS. MY HUSBAND DELIVERS THEM TO HANDICAPPED CUSTOMERS. WELL GOTTA GO PRISCILLA

-- MRS PRISCILLA WILLIAMS (GP83196@AOL.COM), September 24, 2000.

What Gerbil said sounds a little familiar. My teenage daughter was cooking with our fresh eggs just the other day and wanted to know what was wrong with them."They're so bright!" she said. This is our first year raising chickens and I do most of the cooking. She was relieved when I told her that is the way eggs should look. It has made her question the quality of other items that we dont yet raise or make ourselves. I think she's getting the homesteading bug too!

-- Denise (jphammock@msn.com), September 24, 2000.

What I find interesting about Egglands Best is that they use styrofoam packaging! Seems weird to me (but then, who am I?) to package these "special eggs" in plastic! LOL. People I know collect egg cartons for me all the time, and I hate (but don't refuse) the plastic ones. I think Egglands is the only kind I get that's white and plastic.

Once you get a following for eggs from your chickens, you'll have customers for ever! I also sell my authentically healthy eggs for a lot cheaper than Egglands...customers appreciate the value even more.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), September 24, 2000.