Tag Archives: egg

recipe: egg nests.

recipe: egg nests. I.

since The Girls are always producing eggs and odin loves to help in the kitchen, we’re always looking for fun and simple egg recipes that he can help make. recently, i ran across this recipe for egg nests and thought i’d give it a try.

first, of course, you want some fresh eggs. we have those aplenty.

oh, and preheat the oven to 450°F.

recipe: egg nests. II.

grate some cheese, about a 1/4 cup for every 2 eggs. the recipe calls for gruyere, which i used, but there’s no reason you couldn’t substitute something else to your liking.

recipe: egg nests. III.

separate the egg yolks from the whites. put the whites in a mixing bowl and the yolks in individual bowls to help you later on when you have to place them carefully in their nest.

recipe: egg nests. IV.

whip the egg white with a quarter teaspoon of salt until stiff. i might have overwhipped these whites, but whatever.

recipe: egg nests. V.

gently fold the cheese into the egg whites, being careful to not collapse the whipped goodness.

recipe: egg nests. VI.

create little mounds of the egg white mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. you want the mounds shaped like nests so they can hold the yolk, so be sure to make indentations in the center.

recipe: egg nests. VII.

put the egg white nests in the oven for about 3 minutes and then pull out the tray and carefully add an egg yolk to the center of each nest.

recipe: egg nests. VIII.

put the baking sheet back in the oven for about 3 more minutes and prepare yourself for eggy cheesy goodness! they are quite tasty but obviously only for going to be enjoyed by those who like “runny” yolks.

truth be told, i probably over browned these whites just a titch. be warned, they brown fast! but i don’t think it affected the flavor.

grow yer own grass for easter!

grow yer own grass for easter!

it makes me smile to see an easter egg odin made with grandmother sitting in a basket odin made at school filled with real easter grass that grows and grows and grows. i like that odin makes the basket every year as a vibrant and tangible reminder that spring and its promise of renewal is, literally, right around the corner.

and it’s much more pleasant smelling and soothing to the senses than that nasty plastic grass 🙂

this year the school used rye, i believe, which grew an astonishing inch per day and goes from seed to needing a trim in about a week.

next year we’ll need hopefully dye some eggs from The Girls.

HELP! one of The Girls has A Taste For Eggs!



i checked for eggs for the last time late this afternoon and found one egg which appears to have been pecked by one of The Girls! it doesn’t seem like she pecked all the way through the tough membrane, so it’s possible she didn’t get A Taste of The Good Stuff inside which we’ve heard can be Very Bad. once they get a taste of an egg they quickly learn that it’s much yummier than their regular food and will quickly eat all the profits, so to speak.

but why now? i don’t think we have any of the typical causes of egg eating – weak eggshells, improperly built nesting boxes, overcrowding, too much light in the nexting boses, insufficient nest litter etc. kris fessed up and said that a few weeks ago she inadvertantly dropped an egg and didn’t realize it until she saw some of The Girls Pecking away at it. perhaps that’s the cause? though it rather strange that it took them a few weeks to get around to investigating whether the eggs in the nesting box are as good as the one they found on the ground.

any eggperienced folks have suggestions for how to prevent further egg eating? everything i’ve read indicates that it’d difficult to break the habit and it’s best to cull the offenders sooner rather than later. thoughts?

reaping the benefits of an insulated nesting box.



the sub-zero temperatures over the past week have provided a good test about whether or not it was worth the effort to insulate the nesting box in an attempt to prevent frozen eggs.

The Conventional Wisdom folks said the insulation wouldn’t make a difference and unless we were able to collect the eggs throughout the day ( not a possibility ), we’d probably end up with a 25% of the eggs frozen by the time we got to them.

we haven’t had a single frozen egg so far this winter.

a clue left by our Under the Weather hen?



i have no idea if this is related to our Girl who is feeling under the weather, but it is a curious coincidence that the day she got sick one of The Girls laid an egg that looks unlike any other egg we’ve seen from them.

i’m not even sure how you’d describe it. mostly mottled? the shell doesn’t seem otherwise affected. this site seems to indicate mottling means the egg didn’t dry out quickly after laying but i can’t tell from the photograph if that’s actually what happened to the egg we found.

perhaps it’s indicative of some sort of viral infection or nutritional deficiency that’s related to the illness? or just a red herring?

update: informed sources tell me that the mottling is just a coincidence and not related to the illness.

update again: hmmm. more clues? the under the weather hen just laid a egg with a shell so weak it broke with the slightest touch.

how to store fresh eggs.

how to store fresh eggs.

now that we have plenty of Gifts from The Girls, the obvious question is how to best store the eggs?

farm fresh eggs come with a protein coating called the bloom which seals the egg and protects it from going bad from bacterial contamination. supermarket eggs are washed which removes the bloom and forces refrigeration. but just how long can unwashed eggs remain edible without refrigeration?

we’ve heard anectodes from folks with backyard hens who claim 3-4 months! i’m not sure who would ever have the tasty gifts sitting around that long, but a 1977 study from mother earth news, “How To Store Fresh Eggs” seems to corroborate the anectode. according to the article unrefrigerated, unwashed farm eggs were still edible after 12 weeks, although they note that, “If we’d had our druthers, understand, we’d have eaten something else … but, under survival conditions, we could have lived on the completely unprotected 90-day-old eggs if we’d have had to.”

according to the study, an unwashed clean egg placed under refrigeration shortly after being laid can stay fresh for up to six months or more!

so, as strange as it might sound to folks used to fretting about how long eggs have been out of the fridge, keeping clean fresh, unwashed eggs unrefrigerated for a few months seems entirely plausible.

we don’t keep them around that long, but we do tend to have them out of the fridge for a few days before sending our surplus to happy homes and consuming the rest within 7-10 days of being laid.

the inevitable egg with a bit of manure is a little more problematic. washing it will remove the protection of the bloom, so any soiled eggs are handled with care and common sense. don’t put heavily manured eggs in fridge with other food and, as this article states, “Do not immerse your eggs in a sink full of water. The bloom is removed leaving the eggs surrounded by water that contains manure. I think you can see the problem here.”