Infotainment: Part ONE

Each week I include an informative and entertaining insert with the eggs from my little flock. The first insert, "About Our Eggs" is essential; it's about egg safety. There is a difference between handling grocery store eggs and farm-fresh eggs. What is this difference? Read on...

About Our Eggs
EGG SAFETY!
We don't wash our eggs, and you shouldn't either until just before you are ready to use the egg.
* Why DON'T we wash the eggs?? Are we lazy?
When a chicken lays an egg, there is a microscopically thin membrane that covers the egg's shell. This membrane is called "the bloom". The bloom is the egg's way of protecting itself against germs and harmful bacteria. It blocks the egg's pores, sealing it off from outside contamination and slowing down the aging process. Washing off the egg also washes off the protective bloom.
* Why SHOULD you wash an egg?? Isn't it organic?
There is pretty much only one exit from a chicken. It's called a 'vent.' Eggs go out the vent, and so does...everything else. (Now you know why eggs need a protective bloom.) So it's good to give the egg a wash off before you use it.
*I've never heard of this.
Grocery store eggs are washed when they are produced, then coated with mineral oil to re-seal the shell--like a man-made bloom. So you don't have to wash those eggs, because somebody already did.

As always, keep eggs refrigerated. Cook eggs, and food containing eggs, thoroughly.