Our parishioners swap produce after Mass. lots of eggs, all brown shells and deep yellow or orange yolks. I bet you have a parishioner who would supply you with eggs. He will be at the Latin Mass. 😀
RCG, too funny! Yes, I have an EF parishioner who provides me with eggs from chickens that roam in their yard. These eggs are of a variety of shell colors, white, brown, blue, green etc. However, the yokes are still yellow. Perhaps they are giving the chickens store bought feed? As an aside, I was told by this parishioner that fresh eggs don't need refrigeration for up to one month.
Fresh eggs DO need refrigeration if they have been washed.
"It turns out that, here in America, eggs are refrigerated because the USDA requires eggs sold for consumption to be washed, processed, and then refrigerated before they come anywhere near a store’s shelves. On the other hand, most European and Asian countries have reached the opposite conclusion, requiring that table eggs not be wet-washed, and also not refrigerated."
Considering the chicken crap often on them, washing and refigerating is highly advised.
Free range chickens eat feed store feed, but also get (theoretically) the natural suppliments of greenery and bugs.
I see the label says 8 acres. It depends on how many chickens they keep on whether that 8 acres is dirt or green. Chickens eat about anything. If you dropped dead in the pen, they'd try to eat you, too. So, not much greenery left where chickens congregate.
Yep, my sense of skepticism was right. They keep 1000 hens per half acre. which is the definition of free range. Pasture raised means 2.5 acres rotated per 1000 hens for greenery. Doubt there is much greenery for the Happy Egg hens, which leaves feed and water manipulation to get the color.
Whatever they add must be approved, but would rather it be plant based rather than FDA red and yellow added to water. Since I will not be buying them, will leave it to others to look into marigold toxicity.
rcg, no argument, but it has to do likely more with quantity. Ours roamed lush farmland near the henhouse, also nearby the back yard, the hens having plowed ground, tender shoots, tall grass, the back yard, etc to forage for greens and grubs.
If they are essentially mowed grass "yard birds" bordering sawgrass and pine trees, pickin's or peckin's or scratchin's will be rather sparse, and color will be lighter.
As for hen maintenance trivia, we saved all the egg shells to crunch up and mix back into the feed for calcium for strong shells.
I've always understood fresh eggs to have a natural coating of some sort on the shells negating the need for refrigeration for the approximate time frame cited by Fr. AJM's parishioner. Farm processed eggs are washed therefore removing the coating that protects the contents from spoilage. Fresh eggs that have been washed require refrigeration for the same reason as farm processed eggs.
@nom de Faux: that makes sense. I know people build chicken coops on sleds they can move over more lush grass for the hens to eat. I have heard that about the egg shells, too. Here in the Midwest the soil is high in minerals that benefit the livestock and wildlife. Also the color of the shell seems to be dependent on the breed as much as food, although that seems to affect the deepness of the color and the thickness of the shell.
ByzRus, that is entirely correct, the only fly in the ointment being the often present chicken poop on eggs, not something you want in your fridge or on hands while handling other breakfast foods, nor on that bit of shell which falls into broken eggs. It often is dried by the time eggs collected, and not something easily just wiped away, and wiping not especially germ removing.
rcg, we had several breeds, yolks were uniformly tangerine orange from the forage, shell colors, size and fragility of course varied with breed.
ByzRus is right. It is a coating ofr protein (dried mucus) that seals the porous egg shell. You can store them at room temperature for several months, over winter for example, by submerging that fresh, unwashed, egg in slaked lime solution. Then retieve the egg, yuo may wash it now, and then treat it as you would any other egg.
As for the gimmick of pandering to consumers concerned over animal welfare, and how happy are free range chickens who would consume consumers given half a chance,
The fate of chickens is as has always been, young rooters culled as soon as detected for stewing and broth making (too tough for anything else), them otherwise fertilizing eggs and too aggressive to otherwise manage,
The hens kept for laying until egg production drops and then the same fate for them,
And only major difference being whether kept in a box for entire life with deformed bones, or allowed to roam a pen and get tougher and free to peck other weaker birds to death in gang murders. Anyone who feels sorry for chickens has obviously not spent much time around them.
16 comments:
Our parishioners swap produce after Mass. lots of eggs, all brown shells and deep yellow or orange yolks. I bet you have a parishioner who would supply you with eggs. He will be at the Latin Mass. 😀
RCG, too funny! Yes, I have an EF parishioner who provides me with eggs from chickens that roam in their yard. These eggs are of a variety of shell colors, white, brown, blue, green etc. However, the yokes are still yellow. Perhaps they are giving the chickens store bought feed?
As an aside, I was told by this parishioner that fresh eggs don't need refrigeration for up to one month.
Fresh eggs DO need refrigeration if they have been washed.
"It turns out that, here in America, eggs are refrigerated because the USDA requires eggs sold for consumption to be washed, processed, and then refrigerated before they come anywhere near a store’s shelves. On the other hand, most European and Asian countries have reached the opposite conclusion, requiring that table eggs not be wet-washed, and also not refrigerated."
https://eggsafety.org/us-refrigerate-eggs-countries-dont/
Considering the chicken crap often on them, washing and refigerating is highly advised.
Free range chickens eat feed store feed, but also get (theoretically) the natural suppliments of greenery and bugs.
I see the label says 8 acres. It depends on how many chickens they keep on whether that 8 acres is dirt or green. Chickens eat about anything. If you dropped dead in the pen, they'd try to eat you, too. So, not much greenery left where chickens congregate.
Yep, my sense of skepticism was right. They keep 1000 hens per half acre. which is the definition of free range. Pasture raised means 2.5 acres rotated per 1000 hens for greenery. Doubt there is much greenery for the Happy Egg hens, which leaves feed and water manipulation to get the color.
https://www.organicconsumers.org/press/organic-consumers-assoc-sues-happy-egg-co-says-pasture-raised-claims-are-false-and-deceptive
Marigolds were added to the chicken feed. Not a bad thing, just sayin.
Whatever they add must be approved, but would rather it be plant based rather than FDA red and yellow added to water. Since I will not be buying them, will leave it to others to look into marigold toxicity.
I suspect the color will depend on what is available to the chicken. Grass and bugs in middle Georgia are likely different than other places.
rcg, no argument, but it has to do likely more with quantity. Ours roamed lush farmland near the henhouse, also nearby the back yard, the hens having plowed ground, tender shoots, tall grass, the back yard, etc to forage for greens and grubs.
If they are essentially mowed grass "yard birds" bordering sawgrass and pine trees, pickin's or peckin's or scratchin's will be rather sparse, and color will be lighter.
As for hen maintenance trivia, we saved all the egg shells to crunch up and mix back into the feed for calcium for strong shells.
I've always understood fresh eggs to have a natural coating of some sort on the shells negating the need for refrigeration for the approximate time frame cited by Fr. AJM's parishioner. Farm processed eggs are washed therefore removing the coating that protects the contents from spoilage. Fresh eggs that have been washed require refrigeration for the same reason as farm processed eggs.
@nom de Faux: that makes sense. I know people build chicken coops on sleds they can move over more lush grass for the hens to eat. I have heard that about the egg shells, too. Here in the Midwest the soil is high in minerals that benefit the livestock and wildlife. Also the color of the shell seems to be dependent on the breed as much as food, although that seems to affect the deepness of the color and the thickness of the shell.
ByzRus, that is entirely correct, the only fly in the ointment being the often present chicken poop on eggs, not something you want in your fridge or on hands while handling other breakfast foods, nor on that bit of shell which falls into broken eggs. It often is dried by the time eggs collected, and not something easily just wiped away, and wiping not especially germ removing.
rcg, we had several breeds, yolks were uniformly tangerine orange from the forage, shell colors, size and fragility of course varied with breed.
ByzRus is right. It is a coating ofr protein (dried mucus) that seals the porous egg shell. You can store them at room temperature for several months, over winter for example, by submerging that fresh, unwashed, egg in slaked lime solution. Then retieve the egg, yuo may wash it now, and then treat it as you would any other egg.
Eggsellent comments.
@ frajm: #facepalm
As for the gimmick of pandering to consumers concerned over animal welfare, and how happy are free range chickens who would consume consumers given half a chance,
The fate of chickens is as has always been, young rooters culled as soon as detected for stewing and broth making (too tough for anything else), them otherwise fertilizing eggs and too aggressive to otherwise manage,
The hens kept for laying until egg production drops and then the same fate for them,
And only major difference being whether kept in a box for entire life with deformed bones, or allowed to roam a pen and get tougher and free to peck other weaker birds to death in gang murders. Anyone who feels sorry for chickens has obviously not spent much time around them.
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