The Incredible Edible Local Egg

This is very exciting. Tonight I pick up my first dozen eggs in a local egg co-op from the Brown Family Farm. Here's how it works: I determine how many dozen eggs I want every two weeks. For us, for now, that's a dozen. Then every other week I go pick up my eggs after work. They're grown from chickens who roam freely, squawk at each other, and lay eggs at their leisure. If you haven't eaten fresh farm eggs, the yolks are such a bright sunny yellow they can seem alarming, and the taste is lovely and fresh.

This is my third attempt at making a pick-up, which was exacerbated by late work nights and a friend and fellow co-opper who was picking up for me not being able to make it. But third time's a charm, and tonight the connection will be made.

This now means that, come the late summer/early fall pick-up of bulk meat and chicken from Royer Farm, our chicken, beef, and eggs will all be farmed locally and come from animals who were treated humanely. Slowly, we're making food choices that leave less of a carbon footprint, enable us to have a connection to the food source, and don't involve inhumane living conditions for the animals.

If you haven't seen the July 2007 issue of Gourmet, check it out. This month's theme is sustainability and conscious eating. In Ruth Reichl's letter from the editor, she writes, "At this moment, ethical eating may be a mere whisper in our national conversation, but it is getting louder by the day." It's exciting to see that eating locally, seasonally, and ethically isn't a kooky trend from the unshaven guy in ragg socks and Birkenstocks who harangues you in the supermarket line; it's becoming mainstream and is attainable for all of us. One dozen eggs at a time.

Tomorrow I go to our local farmer's market for the first time in four weeks. I've nearly had the shakes from this long absence, which was due to a visit to Michigan, a book convention in NY, and getting stuck overnight unexpectedly at Newark Airport, which I swear I will never fly into again because I always get stuck at Newark. I have a list of about 20 things I "need" from the market. Report tomorrow. Over and out.