This is post number one of "Things I Love About Summer: An Occasional Post About Summer in Iowa." And yes, those are eggs....real eggs. Now I know you think you buy real eggs at the grocery store. You don't. You buy real eggs like these at the Kent Feed Store in St. Charles or maybe at your local Farmer's Market. Real eggs come in a variety of colors including pale green. Real eggs are also a variety of sizes. Real eggs come from real chickens...the kind that roost in boxes filled with straw and spend their days pecking around a farmyard supplementing their cracked corn feed with bugs and worms. Real chickens eat almost anything including your table scraps. Real chickens cluck and cackle when they lay an egg giving you notice that if you hurry to the barn, you can pluck one out of their nest and it will still be warm. Real chickens hide their real eggs if you let them have free roaming rights...hide them until there are enough to fill the nest at which time this real chicken will settle in and become a brood hen. Before you know it there will be real baby chicks peeping from under the hen's wings.
This photo shows two real eggs and one of those eggs you buy at the supermarket. Can you find the real eggs? When you break them, real eggs are definitely a richer yellow; they may also have a speck of red on the yolk. This indicates that the real chicken was loved by a real rooster and that if these eggs had been left with the hen there may have been additions to the chicken family. I love eating real eggs for breakfast. I love baking with them. Everything tastes better when you make it with eggs like these! And real chickens only lay eggs when the days get warmer and lighter...they are one of the joys of summer!
3 comments:
i've seen white and brown eggs...but never ones like these with such lovely colors and hues! i have to tell on myself: my first encounter with "real" eggs ended up with me throwing several away. a friend with free roaming chickens gave me some eggs one day while i was visiting her in the country. i was so excited and couldn't wait to get home to use them. but when i broke open the first one, the yolk was soooo yellow i thought there must be something wrong with it - so i cracked another and another...all had the deep yellow yolk, and i'm sorry to say i threw them all away. city girl that i am, (and used to those anemic looking yolks from the grocery store) i had no idea that's how "real" eggs are supposed to look. boy, was i embarrassed!
Think how horrified you would have been, Stacy, if the eggs had been fertile and contained the tell-tale spot of blood! The blue-green eggs are from Araucana chickens, a breed originally from South America. They all taste the same...yummy! Chickens are special to me. Stay tuned for a future post 'honoring' them!
Those eggs are gorgeous! I do freak out if they contain a bit of red though. :)
Post a Comment