a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

Tag: Eggs

What Laying Hens Deserve

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This is how one hen lays her egg. Afterwards, she spends a few minutes doing a little nesting, and then she leaves the nest. Each hen is different. Some leave the nest soon after laying their eggs. Others will settle down afterwards and sit for awhile.

What they all need are quiet, soft, clean nests with plenty of straw. What no hen deserves is to be locked in a wire cage, unable to be outdoors and enjoy the sun and rain, or unable to lay her egg in a soft nest.

What no hen deserves is to be housed with tens of thousands of other hens in crowded laying houses, where there is no peace and quiet, no quiet walks in the woods, no hunting for food through tall grass, and no sunshine.

April 23, 2014
Egg Day

Today is Thursday, the day I deliver eggs to Tweets in Edison, WA. Most of the eggs are destined for their kitchen and many will end up on the breakfast plates of lucky customers. A few cartons are available for sale, so if you want eggs laid April 16 and 17, and are headed to Tweets this weekend, this is your chance to snatch them before anyone else does. It’s also your opportunity to see how refined your palette is. Can your tongue taste the difference between an egg laid on the 17th versus the 16th? When you buy eggs from a man and his hoe®, you’ll always know when your egg was laid, and often which hen laid it.

April 17, 2014
New Pullet Egg and Cherry Blossom Snow

This time of year, every day is full of surprises. This morning I discovered a pullet egg. When hens first start laying eggs, they lay tiny eggs. You’ll rarely, if ever, find them in a store, but they are beautiful and make very cute fried eggs.

The flowers are still drifting off the cherry tree and blanketing the ground like snow. There are more petals than the chickens can possibly eat.

The mint is now growing vigorously.

And the salmon berries are in full bloom. Come late June and early July, the orange-salmon colored berries will be ready to eat. They are best eaten in the afternoon on sunny days, after the sun has warmed the berries to perfection.

April 9, 2014
Egg Yolks from Paradise

I try and describe how rich the eggs are that my chickens lay. But it’s impossible to describe them with just words. It’s like the hens manage to stuff miniature suns inside their eggs. Can you roll your egg yolks like the video below? You can do so many wonderful things with egg yolks. You might as well use the best.

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So that’s what a rich, healthy egg yolk looks like. It’s not hard to imagine that it can nourish a growing chick.

April 6, 2014
Egg Day

Thursdays are when I deliver eggs to Tweets Cafe. They use most of the eggs for making their delicious meals, but they also have a few dozen available for you to buy. When I was making my delivery, David, the chief, promptly grabbed two dozen eggs to make a quiche. These are pictures of the cartons they will have available for you to buy if you are visiting them this weekend. Tweets is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

April 3, 2014