Eggs...

There is nothing so simple, yet so vastly complex, as an egg, is there?  I mean, think about it for a minute.  Eggs are used all the time in recipes for different foods, and also eaten on their own, they can be baked, fried, poached, boiled, used to make delicious savory sauces, and also as delightfully sweet desserts.  But have you ever actually thought about that box of eggs in your refrigerator?

As I've mentioned, we just spent a little over a year living on a farm that was very much a WORKING farm.  We had cows, pigs, ducks, a turkey, Guinea fowl, a dog, a cat, and more chickens than I could count on any given day, with more hatching all the time.  So really, we were never at a loss for eggs!  But...  For the first time in probably more than a year, I cracked open two eggs from a store-bought dozen, and nearly started to CRY.  The yolks were so PALE!  The melted butter in the pan almost had more colour than they did!  I wish I had some pictures of the eggs our chickens up north laid, because they were BEAUTIFUL by comparison, they were a bright, deep, RICH almost ORANGE golden yolk, and they had AMAZING flavour!  I actually once accused my mother of having added yellow food colouring to the scrambled eggs she served for breakfast during a family trip once, because the yolks were THAT bright.  Not the pale excuses for yolks in these commercially grown, store-bought eggs.  So tonight, and until I can find a source for farm-fresh eggs again, I shall be mourning the loss of my wonderfully bright-yolked eggs from chickens I know and love...