Where Eggs Come From

A fellow went into a restaurant and asked “What's the special of the day?”
The waiter replied, “Beef Tongue.”
The fellow said, “Ugh! I don't want anything that comes out of a cow's mouth. Fry me up a couple of eggs!”

Dave here, enjoying the fall beauty, and thinking about chickens and eggs. My usual four-mile walk takes me past a farm that is close enough to the road to get a good view of the cows, hogs, sheep, and chickens that roam around the pastures. Yesterday, a nice little red hen came out close to the road to find some supper. It was necessary to take a couple photos.

Scratching in fresh horse manure

Not all eggs are the same. Some are produced in egg “factories” where many thousands of hens live in small cages. Their lives consist of eating layer-mash, drinking water, and laying eggs. And that’s about it. We buy those eggs off the store shelves at a decent price. They taste alright and they work okay in recipes. We wouldn't even know that there is something much better out there - until we try farm-fresh eggs from chickens that run about, and scratch around in the dirt, eating bugs, worms, seeds, grain, slugs, grubs, and just about anything else. We’re fortunate out here in the country where so many Amish families have chickens running loose, and little signs out by the end of their driveways that say, “Eggs For Sale.”

Once you try eggs from free-ranging chickens, it’s difficult to go back to eggs from chickens that are kept in cages. The variety of nutrients that a free-range chicken gets is so much greater. The yolks are brighter (sometimes nearly orange) and have higher levels of beta carotene, as well as being more nutritious.

I’m not writing this to get into the discussion of how animals are treated. My intent is merely to explain why I was humored by the sight of a chicken scratching in manure, looking for supper. This is not a distasteful thing at all. A chicken knows what a chicken likes, and the hen in the picture will produce safe and delicious eggs.

When I began dating the girl who has been my long-suffering wife for forty-three years, she had already spent seventeen years on a farm where there were cows, hogs, and chickens. (As a side note here; farm girls are the best. Not much scares them, and they can deal with dirt and manure.)

Anyway, I remember my father-in-law telling me once that “the most efficient way to feed grain to animals, is to feed it to cows; run some hogs in with the cows; and run some chickens in with the hogs. What the cows don’t eat or digest, the hogs will find and eat. Then the chickens will scratch through everything and get whatever's left."

How about this for a couple statistics. In 1945, the average American ate 404 eggs per year. Since then, this figure has slowly dropped to 250 eggs per person each year. That's still a lot of eggs! If you have a source for eggs that come from chickens that can scratch in the dirt, you'll have the best flavored eggs with the highest nutritional value.

One of the many Amish farms with eggs to sell.

We're going to wrap this up for now. Hope your week was great, and if you're able, get outside to enjoy the beauty of fall.

From Kidron, Ohio. So long.

Kidron in the Fall

Sitting here staring at this screen is about the most uninspiring thing a person could do on a day like this, but we'll hurry and be brief with this writing, and then head outside once more to enjoy the scenery.

We waited for this - the time of year when the leaves are turning many shades of yellow, orange and red in our part of the world. What a wonderful gift it is to be able to see and enjoy all this natural beauty that surrounds us in the month of October.   I thank Creator God for these things.  If you haven’t been out and about yet, you really should take a drive to see for yourself. Consider our area if you are able, but if not, allow me to share some pictures that were taken in the places I generally walk, east and southeast of Kidron.

I wanted to cover more ground this morning than usual, and hit a few additional roads in our neck of the woods, so I jumped into my car and headed east on Jericho.  I don’t remember steering it actually, because I became so caught up in the surrounding beauty that the car was pretty much on auto pilot.  It seemed to read my mind though, and made quite a few quick stops to allow for capturing the scenes of autumn that are making beautiful backdrops for the Amish farms.  The farm houses and barns are rustically attractive any time of year, but this is like putting the bow on the present.  What a gift it is to live here in Wayne County Ohio. I do not take for granted the fact that my home is surrounded with enviable scenes of bucolic beauty. 

 Sometimes it is almost necessary to pinch myself to believe it is real.  Perhaps you will be inspired to get out of the house and see for yourself.  If you do not live in our area, you are most welcome to visit.  We should have another week or so of gorgeous fall foliage.

From Kidron, Ohio, home of the world’s hardest-working men (that’s how we make up for being so homely), most beautiful women (and they can cook too!),and the most energetic children (they’re really cute too—especially the ones that call me Grandpa).  Have a wonderful weekend!  So long.