Eggs

This blog I'm devoting to the subject of eggs.

My friend Toni's eggs

It's usually pretty easy to find local eggs, at least during the summer months. My friend Toni often will bless me with a dozen eggs from her chickens. The beauty of these is not only are they inarguably the healthiest, as her chickens have free range of her yard by day, and a amazingly well-kept coop (compete with electricity) by night, but they have deep, orange yolks, and come in shades of cream, green and blue. Gorgeous.

The Taj Mahal of chicken coops, at Toni's farm

Eggs are easily found in farmer's markets. There is a popular guy, known as Swing Belly, that does the Brookfield Farmer's Market. That's all I'm going to say about his name. He's a local favorite. Lately he's been bringing a box of bananas to the market. When you go to buy your eggs, he holds a banana end to his forehead and asks you to guess what number he is thinking of, between one and ten. Amazingly, Doug and I have both guessed right the past couple of weeks! That scores us a  banana. I don't think Swing Belly knows just what that banana means to us. We haven't purchased any since we started eating local, and we love them. I'm saving our this week for smoothies. Doug says he's going to ask Swing Belly to switch the prize to limes, so we can have some for gin and tonics this summer.

In the winter, local eggs can be more difficult to come by. Regardless of the health benefits of local vs. factory farmed, I do solidly believe that the cramped and wretched living conditions for chickens in factory egg facilities is not what I want to promote with my almighty dollar. So, I try to find better sources.

One local source Doug found is Vesuvio Bakery in North Riverside. This is on 22nd Street, close to Target, Home Depot, etc. The owners have a farm not far away and raise chickens. They usually have a cooler stocked with their eggs.

Sylvia and Giblet

 

My poultry farmer, Joe Reaver, raises ethically treated chicken for meat and eggs. I'll do more on him later, but I'm trying to get regular deliveries of his chickens and eggs going at the studio. I've been to his farm and knows he is the real thing.

Lastly, I do know of some folks who are raising chickens in their backyards. In some towns, this is legit. In others, like mine, these folks are definitely operating under the radar. If I weren't dividing my time between two homes from spring to fall, I would be right there with them. One season I raised chickens at the farm and I can vouch for the fact that they are far less obtrusive, dangerous, noisy, and smelly than dogs, which are perfectly legal. (I have a dog, too.) As long as the chickens are contained and maintained, a responsible chicken owner should have no reason to have to hide the fact that they have feathered pets and are raising their own food. And, I'm not sure if that is all I'll have to say about that.