dangenho@gmail.com, Author at Original Food Dude

This is my Dr Seuss chicken, she lays green eggs for Sam I Am

I know it seems weird to have a post based solely on eggs, but this is a food website and eggs are a super food. I’m not sure if they have them on Krypton, maybe theirs have red yolks, but they do pack a powerful punch of protein, a little over 6 grams per large egg, and that’s the store bought white chicken eggs.

Two welsummer eggs, an olive ameraucana egg, and a tan buff orpington egg

Chicken Eggs

Not all chicken eggs are created equal, neither are all chickens for that matter. Some lay better than others, some eggs are larger, different colors, and richer flavor.

For quantity you really can’t beat a Black Australorp, one of these set a world record on number of eggs at an amazing 364 eggs in a year. That’s almost exactly one a day, pretty awesome. Most laying breeds will average 3-4 per week so maybe 200 a year. White Leghorns also lay a lot but I’m not a fan of the plain white eggs.

Black Australorp

For quality James Bond says go with Marans, hey if they are good enough for 007 they are good enough for me. Marans lay a beautiful dark chocolate egg, so do other breeds like Welsummers and Barnevelders, but supposedly Marans have the best flavor (although I’ve never noticed a huge difference). The real difference in flavor I believe comes from how the chicken is cared for. I’ll lay it out for you.

Typical poultry rations come from a feed mill and are formulated to contain much of the trace and macro nutrients a chicken needs. When you look at them they are advertised with a protein range (expressed as a percent). Layer pellets or mash usually are in the 16-22% range in protein (they do usually include needed minerals so they are valuable).

The problem comes in completely confined situations. Chickens often have a tendency to destroy, particularly vegetable and flower gardens. They will turn a small confined space in to a moonscape in very little time, this is all to be expected they are just yardbirds . So they end up in a dirt and wood confinement being fed the preformulated diet from Nutrena or the local mill, which is fine, but don’t expect farm eggs in that scenario. I have a friend that has chickens, we were talking, I commented on the extreme taste difference between farm eggs and store bought eggs and he said he couldn’t tell a difference. I thought it weird until I thought about their chickens, they are fed a premixed diet in an enclosed pen so they were growing store bought quality eggs. No wonder he couldn’t tell a difference.

Back to the protein, the premixes range from 16-22% and a chicken eats roughly 100 grams a day of that, meaning they get 16-22 grams of protein a day. These are the minimum daily requirements for laying chickens. So the minimum goes in to the egg, they often end up lacking in color and flavor because of it. On the opposite end of the spectrum just one small earthworm contains 7 grams of protein and chickens will eat them like crazy. All this means is that chickens with access to forage, bugs, and worms will usually have a higher protein consumption, which tends to translate into better eggs.

I would never try and knock people for how they raise their chickens, but for quality nothing beats chickens foraging on their own.

Egg color is more of a coolness factor than anything. There is something magical about opening a nest box to a myriad of colors rather that white. Unless you’ve painted your house completely white top to bottom I would guess you agree.

This post will actually grow as I add information about quail eggs and duck eggs…..

Beautiful black morels

So several years ago I got really interested in wild mushrooms. I was on a camping trip with some friend and after too much Dr Pepper I wandered in to the woods for some privacy and saw some beautiful mushrooms growing out of a log. They looked just like oyster mushrooms I had purchased at a store before and after a lot of reading (fortunately I had cell service where I was) I determined they were oysters. We cooked them up in some butter over an open fire and they were delicious.

Four pounds of wild oyster mushrooms from an aspen log

From that trip an addict was born. I began studying and learning all I could about wild edible mushrooms (and other wild edibles, but only the delicious kinds). A few years later after I had learned some more I decided I would try my hand at the local farmers market. One problem, the state of Utah Agriculture Department (who regulates these things) didn’t have a way for someone to sell wild mushrooms. So with a little work and gentle persuasion (not sure if it was gentle or not) I convinced them to get me certified through the local University’s Mycologist (mushroom scientist, it’s a real thing I promise). My wife and I became the first certified wild mushroom vendors in the state of Utah, that is our one claim to fame. Here is a video a local health food show made about my mushrooms.

So we still pick them and sell them when we can, but we pick more for our enjoyment than anything, and as I sit here writing this post on a cold February night I can’t help but get excited for the April and May flushes of morels, and the August Porcinis, and September Chanterelles all of which I’m sure will make their own posts in their own seasons. Alas I am left to wish for fresh mushrooms and not just the Costco Creminis which I will enjoy until then.