This I believe: my eggs are the best in Sonoma County. It has been bothering me lately that people want to lump other eggs in with my eggs simply because they are local or raised on a small farm, when the coop that those chickens live in is fixed in a single place. That just is NOT a comparable product to my eggs, which come from chickens housed in mobile facilities. Chickens are great foragers but they are also prey items with a limited range they'll go from their safe haven. Eventually, they eat all the good food in and around their coop and the quality of the eggs goes down. Because my chickens are in trailers surrounded by electro-plastic net fences and they get frequently moved to fresh ground, this problem does not happen. Also, the orchards in which I graze my chickens greatly benefit from their presence. Also, pathogens attracted to chickens get cut off from their chicken supply way before they ever get established. Yes, this is a labor intensive way to raise an animal that notoriously doesn't make you much money. But once you achieve a certain scale I believe it can be valuable, and also this is such an important food, a key ingredient in so many dishes, and a chance to have a truly differentiated product over the competition. Not all LOCAL, small farm eggs are equal!
Here's a picture of me collecting my beautiful eggs:
When in my travels I see an inferior product selling for a higher price than I'm selling for it bothers me. So I'm increasing my egg price to $6.69. That won't completely solve the problem (I see plenty of eggs selling for $8 that aren't as pretty or guaranteed from mobile coops like mine) but it is closer to their real value. The only risk of trying my eggs is getting spoiled on anything else.
Showing a photo of a beautiful orange yolk in hard boiled form (my personal favorite) would be a convincing addition to this post :) Keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to visiting your farm soon.
ReplyDeletethanks for the suggestion Kate. If you click the March archive, I have one (not hard boiled) that I took with my iphone so its not the best quality photo, but it clearly aint no factory egg, that's for sure,
ReplyDeletenext time we hard boil some eggs I'll try to remember to get a picture. I'm afraid when you come my layer flocks won't be here, we evacuated the chickens from this property until the weasel is gone. another feature of a truly mobile coop.