It’s very rare these days to find a morning when we have no plans. This past Sunday was one of those mornings when we were all home with nothing to do. We decided it would be the perfect time for our much anticipated eggsperiment.
What’s an eggsperiment?
We have been part of a CSA for many years and recently opted in to receive half a dozen organic fresh eggs each week directly from the farm. Prior to our CSA we were buying organic eggs mainly from our local Whole Foods Market. We have quite a few friends and family members who have chickens and have been raving about their delicious farm fresh eggs. Chickens are not in our future so our CSA was the way to go if we wanted fresh eggs. It was time to put the eggs to the test and have a family taste off.
Which eggs were better: CSA or organic store bought eggs?
We whipped up two batches of scrambled eggs-each in a separate stainless steel pan. One was chock-full of organic eggs from the farm and the other filled with organic store bought eggs.
Our three boys eagerly sat down at the table to begin the taste test. We suggested blindfolds-that didn’t go over too well. They promised to close their eyes with no peeking.
The oldest
We started with the oldest. The first scoop of egg went into his mouth with his eyes shut tight. His two brothers watched him begin to chew-waiting for a comment. He methodically chewed, savoring every bite. Nothing-no comments, no nothing. He rinsed his mouth with a little water (we decided ahead of time this would make it very official). Then he took his next bite. Again, chewing slowly and swallowing. He opened his big brown eyes and out came a few words in his deceptively deep voice: “These are the farm share eggs” as he pointed to one side of the plate. He was right. We decided to pry a little to see if he had made an educated guess or just a plain old guess. He reasoned that they tasted “fresher and juicier”. Juicier: an interesting choice of words to describe scrambled eggs. He also noted the farm share eggs were brighter in color, had more white specks and were smaller.
The youngest
Our youngest son repeated the process and made many of the same comments. We probably should have put them in separate rooms to keep the eggsperiment official, but that wouldn’t have been any fun.
The middle
The middle guy had no interest in closing his eyes at all. He just wanted to eat the eggs-and he did. No comment.
The verdict
- We all voted and the farm share eggs won.
- The farm share eggs were quite a bit smaller than store bought eggs.
- The farm eggs were a bit brighter in color than the store bought eggs.
- The farm share eggs tasted fresher-I’m not sure how to describe this. I think you will have to have a taste test yourself.
Overall it was a fun and different way to eat eggs together on a Sunday morning.
Why buy organic eggs? To learn more about the non-toxic and great green reasons to buy organic eggs head on over to Practically Green.
Have you done an eggsperiment? Do you buy organic eggs?
I like the idea of the taste test. I wonder what our results would be.
We have a coop in our backyard with four chickens and I am pretty sure that only three are currently laying eggs. But that is still more than enough for our family of five and occasionally we even have some to share.
The main difference I saw was the yolk is much brighter in the eggs from our chickens than it is in the eggs from the store.
I’d love to find a good source of eggs. We could only get fresh when we were overseas and I really loved the color. What I did not love was the fact they did not come clean. Still a bit squeemish about that.
I love how you got the kids involved! We agree that local eggs are way better. But if you have to go store-bought, the cage free, organic are still a huge step up from the white eggs in a white styrofoam container!
I’m still trying to see if I could sneak a chicken coop in my backyard! Behind us is a big open farm, but we have neighbors on both sides. It would certainly make for a fun series of blog posts 🙂
Sounds like a fun Sunday morning! I love getting my boys involved in taste tests!
Hi Micaela, It was a lot of fun. My kids were definitely into it!
Thanks Amity. All of the families I know with chickens love having them. Most say they are pretty easy to care for. I would love to hear about your experience if you decide to go for it!
Hi Andrea, You could check on localharvest.org for local farms that might sell eggs. I’m guessing there’s a local source near you. Let me know what you find.
How many eggs do your chickens lay each week Marsha? We noticed that the yolks were much brighter too.
I love this, Lori! We only buy eggs from our CSA. I find they are brighter, and when I ate eggs I found they tasted better as well. I also noticed that they are smaller and come in different colors (the shells). This was such a cute post. i think it gave me some ideas for some future posts! 🙂 🙂
Very interesting! We buy organic eggs from the store during the winter & from the farmers market in the summer, but I’ve never paid attention to the differences.
Now you can do a taste test Kiersten!
That sounds like a fun experiment. We got farmers’ market eggs once (at $6 a dozen, not something we’re likely to do all the time) and did something similar. I have just one question: how the heck do you scramble eggs in stainless steel without having things stick horribly?
Cool! I’ve never done an eggsperiment, but I remember the first time I tasted farm fresh eggs (when my mom’s friends had a hobby farm two hours from her home) I couldn’t believe how much more flavourful they were. And the colour!
Occasionally I buy eggs at the farmers’ market, and the independent grocery store I shop at carries the organic, cage-free variety. I’m wary of eggs that are labelled only as organic but not necessarily cage-free, because those laying hens are still squished into inhumane conditions in factory farms!
Hi Andrea! Yes, the color difference was incredible. I wonder why? There must be an explanation. I’m also wary of free-range eggs, since I know ‘free-range’ can actually mean very little movement for the chickens.