No, that isn’t a typo! I did mean to say yeg, instead of egg, in honor of our dear friend Ron. We were at dinner at their house the other night up in the mountains, and as we were dining we landed in a discussion about eggs!
The incredible edible egg
The color of yolks from fresh eggs was particularly vibrant on Ron’s mind, and he was referring to the eggs he gets locally. He was talking about the color of the yolks from fresh eggs, and “the color of my yeg yolk” slipped out instead of “the color of my egg yolk”. We all laughed and of course, carried on about the “yeg yolk” for a while after that.
The laughter we had over said yeg yolk reminded me that I have wanted to share what I know, and what my friends know, about eggs on this blog. I want to share how to choose the best ones in the grocery store, how to store them when you don’t get them from the grocery store, and how you can get the freshest, best egg if you don’t have a “Diane’s Country Store” near your house to get farm fresh eggs.
Sometimes when headed to our mountain retreat, if we are getting there during a time Diane’s Country Store is open, we will pop in and get a dozen or two. Sadly, more times than I care to admit, we are not able to do that. BUT – of course, if YOU are able to, then certainly do get farm fresh eggs!!! They are often different colors on the outside. Blue, spotted, brown, white… They will also usually come NOT pre-washed. Meaning, they will have some sort of membrane or coating on them – they might seem dirty to you, but this is a good thing!
Leave those eggs alone…
When you get farm fresh eggs, do not wash them off until you are ready to eat them. You can keep them on the counter until you are ready to gobble them up. Freshly laid eggs can be left out at room temperature for at least a month before your need to start thinking about moving them into the fridge. Once in the fridge, they can last up to 6 months. Eggs never last that long in my house, not sure about yours!
Side Note: Joe and I were lucky enough to live in Australia for a year a while back, and down in OZ, the eggs are found next to the mayo – on the shelf! Yes – on the shelf. I once looked forever in the store trying to find the eggs until I just gave up! I finally stumbled on them down one of the dry food isles. I had never imagined such a thing!
Once you find farm fresh eggs, the yolk will be so colorful and much darker than those commercial, inexpensive eggs from the grocery. Can you see the intensity of the color if this “yeg yolk”?
All screens, from your PC to Mac to phone to tablet; they all show a slightly different color on each screen, so I hope this is showing a vibrant yellow! Because that is what you should see.
What if you can’t get Farm Fresh Eggs
As I said before, our household usually has to purchase eggs from the grocery. I have gone through the egg discussion so many times with my husband and the egg debate has been solved in my mind, but for him, well, price usually wins what we purchase. The “better” eggs are more expensive, this is true. But in our house, we eat eggs every day, in the morning. Rarely do we not. When we are on a daily dose eggs and my feelings are that we should honor our bodies where we can and splurge for the best egg you can get.
However, the debate continues and I have learned to just go with it when a purchase of eggs is being made that I don’t approve of. I usually do the shopping for us, so most times we get the Certified Humane sticker I long to see on an egg carton.
Certified Human is the name of the game
This leads me to the best egg available. There are several brands of eggs that fall under this umbrella, and here are a few of my favorites: Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs, Vital Farms (you can get a coupon for $1 off here too!), Kirklands (these I get at costco – $6 for two dozen!), and Nellies Nest Eggs.
The best and most reputable certification I have found on getting eggs from the store is making sure you see the logo above, the certified human blue and green and white logo. Sometimes it will be black or grey to blend with the carton it is on, but you must see this in order to know you are getting the best egg you can get.
The egg industry is very loosely regulated, and companies can creatively say that their hens are organic, cage-free, natural, and so on – but they really are not. An organic egg could actually come from a hen confined in a space where there is a small door to the outside. Unless the farmer opens the door this is irrelevant. I have been researching this for a long time, and here is a really good guide on what all the terms mean, and what they don’t ACTUALLY mean. This article gives a good overview of what is really happening and the lack of oversight from the FDA on eggs.
The lack of regulation and true meaning in labeling is why we need to look for and purchase Certified Humane. They oversee more than eggs, and you can find their website here.
In a nutshell, here is their Mission:
Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) is the leading non-profit certification organization dedicated to improving the lives of farm animals in food production from birth through slaughter.
The goal of the program is to improve the lives of farm animals by driving consumer demand for kinder and more responsible farm animal practices.
When you see the Certified Humane Raised and Handled® label on a product you can be assured that the food products have come from facilities that meet precise, objective standards for farm animal treatment.
In short, we are what we eat, and if we eat an egg from a hen that has never seen the sun and is not able to roam and socialize as it normally would, then the energy you are consuming is just that – dark and miserable.
Let’s not be dark and miserable friends, let’s eat Certified Humane!
Oh, and whenever you can, eat with your best good friends too! Here we are at dinner (minus me – I was taking the pic!). We were also able to honor a veteran at that table on Veterans day weekend as well – a special treat – THAN YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. It allows me this platform to ‘speech’ about the best eggs money can buy.
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