On an Eggy Soapbox

I was reading blogs today, as I am wont to do, and I came across a post from one of my favorite food writers, Matthew, from Roots and Grubs. In his post, he talks about choosing eggs at the supermarket. He didn't see much difference in taste between the non-organic supermarket eggs and the fortified or organic eggs. Well, he is probably right about the taste, but there are other differences to consider.

We buy all of our eggs from the farmers market. Specifically, we try to get eggs from Skagit River Ranch. We're not always successful because Skagit's eggs are very popular and if you don't get to the market early, you won't be able to get their eggs.

Skagit had their eggs tested recently (well, 2007) and the results might surprise you. I encourage you to read the entire study, here, but to summarize, here is how Skagit's eggs compared to your average supermarket egg.

• 4 times the amount of Vitamin E
• Double the Vitamin A
• 10 times the amount of Beta Carotene
• 3 times the amount of Omega-3 Fatty Acids
• 100 mg less Cholesterol
• 1/2 gram less Saturated Fat

Pastured eggs really are better for you. We eat a lot of eggs, using them for our breakfast frittatas every week. So the composition of our eggs is very important to us. We'll continue to use pastured eggs as much as we can (which is to say exclusively, unless something very important prevents us from attending a farmers market).

Unfortunately, it isn't enough to look for "free range" eggs in your local supermarket. The USDA's definition of "free range" states that the chickens must have access to the outdoors. This can be as little as a door in their chicken coop that allows them to leave. Most chickens in commercial egg facilities are not acclimated to the outside and don't even realize they can go outside. Not to mention the fact that they are fed only commercial grain. A true pastured chicken needs to forage for food in order to produce eggs with the above benefits.

For information on where to find pastured eggs in your vicinity, check out www.eatwild.com.