I want to share with those homesteaders who sell their yard eggs my source for egg cartons. In FL I am not allowed to "recycle" cartons that were bought from the store (with printing on it). Something about the inspections stamp and misadvertising. So I go by Waffle House and asked them to save me their egg crates. These are plain without printing. They are shaped like the bottom of an egg carton with no top holding 18 eggs. I cut them in half lengthwise. This makes two to hold a doz eggs each. When storing eggs in the fridge, I put an uncut one for the bottom tray. Then each doz carton is fitted into it- one on right and one on left. The next layer is fitted at right angles on top of the first and the next level at right angles and so on. Ten doz. can be picked up easily and transported to the farmers market. I guess IHOP or any of those places would have these cartons that they throw away. Hope this is helpful to someone as it has been to me.

-- Eve in FL (owenall@lwol.com), February 05, 2001

Answers

Thanks for the tip, Eve! However, I called the local WaffleHouse, and was told very rudely, that they return theirs to where they buy the eggs, and then they hung up on me! Must have been a bad day for that manager! However, I'm sure there are other breakfast places that would have them. Thanks again! Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), February 05, 2001.

Hi Everyone, You could also check with a local convinence store that makes food. My husband and I always save stuff for people. They are a good sorce for egg cartons,gallon jars, coffee grinds, cardboard for in between garden rows. Beleive it or not most owners love to help their customers. Nancy

-- Nancy (graf_nan@hotmail.com), February 05, 2001.

Can commercial egg cartons be used if the printing is spray painted over? There was a thread about where blank dozen egg cartons can be purchased a couple of months back. Should be under Poultry (General). I believe one person just ordered them through their local Farmers' Co-op.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 05, 2001.

WE use recycled egg cartons and just glue a label on them with our farm info. Have sold eggs in WI and Arkansas like this with no problems. The cartons that work best are the ones with a solid top. We include name address and the fact that the eggs are raised free range and are ungraded.

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), February 06, 2001.

If you cannot get the free ones you can buy new blank Egg Cartons online at http://www.eggcartons.com I belive they also offer custom printing.

-- Mark in NC Fla (deadgoatman@webtv.net), February 06, 2001.

We priced "blank" cartons at 25 cents each. Forget about making a profit on egg sales!!! As I understood the WI law, printed cartons were fine, but had to be re-labeled to show your own address and to state that the eggs are "ungraded". We used to strike out the old address with a permanent marker where the label did not cover it. The law also stated that eggs had to be refrigerated at 40 degrees F for 24 hours before sale. Our customers used to laugh when we told them these rules - if we were short they would often have us fill a box by checking under the setting chickens! Don't suppose anyone is checking anyway.

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), February 06, 2001.

For those of you with restrictions that are not insane, here's what we do. Our recycling center saves the commercial cartons for us, and we save the 10 cents they would cost if we bought them. We then tape on a simple message (computer generated) that says "FREE RANGE FERTILE EGGS FROM THE HAPPY HENS OF CACKLEBERRY FARM". We sell to the farm store for $1.50, they sell for $2.09. What do the rest of you folks do? By the way, we produce about 10 dozen a week. GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), February 08, 2001.

You can go to http://www.eggboxes.com and get wholesale egg cartons/boxes/trays/etc.

-- The Chicken Man in Texas (Jacobwduffee@juno.com), January 01, 2002.