A Rainbow of Brown
You do know brown is my favorite color right? No seriously it is!Last weekend I went skiing with my coworker Beth. We had a blast! 50 degree weather, not a cloud in the sky! It was beautiful! On our way out to the mountain we passed a small country house with a little sign reading "Brown Eggs for Sale" we made a mental note so I could pick some up on the way home. I, of course, forgot all about it, darn my goldfish memory, but Beth (who is 95% vegan and doesn't eat eggs) was sweet enough to remind me and stop! Thank you Beth!!
We pulled in and after a few minutes noticed an old style bell with a string to pull by the door. The man was wicked nice and I picked up a dozen large eggs, grand total $1.75. More than a dozen eggs at Wegmans... and worth every penny! I mean look at how beautiful these are! Look at the range of colors!
So far I've eaten a few over easy with some freshly toasted bread with a little butter. Now that's good eating! I haven't decided what else I'll make with them :) Any suggestions?
What about you guys, do you prefer brown farm eggs over the normal white kind? Can't taste a difference? Don't care? :)
UPDATE: Svaha left an awesome comment with tons of info, thank you Svaha!!!!
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My family owns an egg farm in Western Mass. Here are a few more tidbits for you:
~ brown eggs come from brown/red chickens, white eggs from white chickens
~ the darker birds tend to be a little heartier, thus the local/smaller farmers raising these birds and having the brown eggs. The big agri-farms down south have the millions of white birds (cheeper maybe? ;) that raise the store bought white eggs.
~ eggs need a few hours to 'set'. An egg right out of the chicken is almost like water when cracked open. So there is such a thing as too fresh.
~ when the young birds first start laying they'll lay small, almost toy like eggs with no yolks.
~ then the first few months they'll often lay what we call double-yolkers. They're 2-3 times the size of a normal egg and actually have two yolks in them. They can't even fit in an egg carton so we'll just rubber band the lid closed. These are a huge hit at the farm. Little kids flip when their egg has two yolks in it.
~ every now and then we'll also get eggs with no shells. A regular egg on the inside of a slightly thicker membrane with absolutely no shell at all (another hit with the kids on farm tours).