Monday, November 16, 2009

Eggs On Porch

My first text message of the day. 6:42am. "Eggs on porch". My good friend, Chris, has a good friend with a local source for fresh eggs. Her own hens. Occasionally, for the price of $2.00, I am the lucky recipient of a dozen free range, cage-free eggs. Until recently my criteria for purchasing eggs was the price. But after reading "Animal,Vegetable,Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, I see a lot of things a little differently including eggs. For instance, I am sure the produce staff at our local HEB run for cover when they see David and I coming to shop on Sunday afternoon. I am always asking them "Where did this come from?" and "Can you find some that were at least grown in the US?". I would prefer local, but that is not going to happen. I remember one Sunday afternoon the produce man saying something to me like, "Ma'am if you want bananas,this is it".

So today I went on-line for sources on egg production. It is mind-boggling and the pictures are unfortunately worth a thousand words. The information is way too much to condense into a few sentences. I will say that one source suggested finding a "local farm with happy hens". That is what Chris's friend has. Hens that are fed well, are free to roam and even sit by the drive in the grass doing what hens do. And sometimes I get that early morning text "Eggs on porch".