Pastured Eggs

I've just discovered that I am cool again. I have pastured chicken eggs! I've been raising chickens on pasture for years. I loose a few to coyotes and such that way, but the eggs are simply outstanding. The yolks are very yellow (orange really) and the whites are firm. Slip them into gently simmering water and they roll into perfect poached eggs with no struggle from me.

I read in "Everyday Food" magazine that pastured eggs are lower in cholesterol and higher in vitamin E and Omega-3 fatty acids than eggs from caged birds. This makes some sense in that the girls get a lot of sunshine and fresh air as well as a variety of foods. I still feed them a commercial balanced layer feed, but since the pasture has been growing again they eat only about half as much as they consumed all winter.

Chickens are omnivores after all - they eat just about anything. I compost all my fruit and vegetable scraps through the chickens. They love old bread and leftover rice, pasta, beans, you name it. They, like other birds, also enjoy beef fat.

They also eat ticks, worms, grubs and help scratch through all the cow patties looking for undigested grains and things. That really helps distribute the manure around the pasture which is an added benefit of having chickens on pasture.

So, I am changing my advertising sign on the refrigerator at work where I stash the eggs for my co-workers to purchase. Instead of Free Range Brown Eggs, $1.00 a dozen, the new sign will read, "Pastured, Free Range Brown Eggs, Good For You, $1.00 a dozen.  Ha!