About Eggs

Bouche de Noel-those are little merienge mushrooms - I was very proud of them!

Okay, so I cook too. I like to make fancy desserts when I have the time and I still might make an occassional wedding cake for someone really special (like Abby). The difference between eggs from my backyard and store bought eggs is almost indescribable - especially for cakes and custards - and I LOVE cake and custard!!!








Eleanor and Austin's going away party cake

Gateau Saint-Honore' (Parisian pastry)















Joe and Darby's Wedding Cake
According to , http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A163261 "The reasons are diverse and overlapping, but a growing number of Americans are fed up with the industrial food system. For laying chickens, industrial agriculture means they are often debeaked, kept in stacked "battery cages" with less than 8 square inches per bird, and given feed laced with antibiotics and arsenic. Those eggs then travel thousands of miles to the local supermarkets—by which time they are usually a couple of weeks old. The manure from these factories presents an environmental problem. Backyard chickens, by contrast, often spend at least part of their day foraging for bugs, seeds and vegetable scraps. They are voracious consumers of fleas, ticks and unwanted garden pests, protein-dense foods that greatly contribute to "pastured" eggs' nutrition. Their droppings are almost as treasured for the nutrients and fertility they contribute to gardens and lawns.("Pastured" is the term most commonly used in sustainable agriculture circles to describe eggs from chickens allowed to eat, sleep and nest according to their species' needs. The oft-used "free-range" and "cage-free" have no regulatory definitions in the United States—meaning they can be stamped on eggs from chickens that were never given access to pasture.)"

Mother Earth News, http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx a magazine dedicated to self-reliant and healthy living, found that "eggs from chickens allowed to forage naturally have, on average, seven times more beta carotene (which is what makes pastured egg yolks so orange), three times more vitamin E, two times more omega-3 fatty acids and two-thirds more vitamin A than their factory farm cousins. Pastured eggs also have one-third less cholesterol and one-quarter less saturated fat, on average."