Healthfood Store egg vs. Pastured/Farm-fresh egg
I’ve always eaten raw eggs, and have never gotten sick from them. And for most of my life, the eggs I ate weren’t even the good kind…just the cheap, factory-farmed grocery store brand.
My mom used to warn me about raw eggs, so maybe I was just lucky. Obviously, the deliciousness & instant gratification of eating gobs of raw cookie dough eclipsed any long-range consideration of food poisoning. Still does.
More recently, I’ve been buying eggs from the health food store, which are organic, vegetarian, & cage-free. I can’t taste any difference, so I buy them more for the sake of the chickens they come from. However, these eggs aren’t quite as wholesome as they sound, even though the chickens are treated more humanely. I guess chickens naturally eat bugs and weeds/greens, so while “Vegetarian Fed” may sound good, this means they’re fed strictly on organic grains — ie., they aren’t outside on the grass, eating their native (and carnivorous) diet of bugs, grubs, etc.
And “cage-free” usually means that although they’re not confined to tiny cages, they’re still raised in a barn (warehouse? Quonset hut?) where the living quarters might still be cramped. They probably don’t go outside, either, lest they sneak a non-vegetarian grub or two.
If you can find them, “Pasture Raised” or “Free Range” eggs are the best choice because it means the chickens are OUTSIDE in the pasture, scratching in the dirt, eating bugs and weeds. As a result, their eggs are richer in nutrients because of what they’re eating. Healthier eggs! And because the chickens aren’t crammed together amidst a bacteria fest, their eggs are much less likely to be contaminated with Salmonella. Safer eggs!
After my eyes were opened by this information, I searched all over the city trying to find a source for pastured eggs, and couldn’t. Not even at the big Saturday Farmer’s Market. A few weeks ago, however, the stars aligned and I serendipitously discovered a source of local, organic, free-range eggs from heirloom chickens! I couldn’t believe it. Someone at work has a friend who has a farm with some very happy pastured chickens, and she brings in farm-fresh eggs to work every Tuesday. All I have to do is walk upstairs and get them out of the fridge. And the icing on the cake — they’re only $3 a dozen. THREE DOLLARS. Whoever these people are, they could be charging twice that amount. Amazing.
The other day I cracked open my last organic, cage-free egg from the health food store just to compare it to the pastured farm egg. The pastured yolk is darker, signaling more nutrition (more carotenoids) and letting you know that the chicken’s been eating good things.
So, if you can find a source for pastured or free-range eggs, you’ve found the holy grail! Take full advantage of it! You’ll be getting safer, more nutritious eggs from happy chickens. I’d still be fine using raw eggs from organic/cage-free companies (though I’d probably try to avoid raw factory-farm eggs), but now that I have my pastured eggs, I’m very confident in using them raw.
I didn’t have luck with any of these websites, but you can check them out for pastured egg sources near you:
(Notice how I don’t specifically tell you to go eat a raw egg. The legal department probably wouldn’t like for me to say that.) 🙂
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