Aren’t these eggs beautiful? The brown ones are from Black Australorps or Buff Orpington chickens. The blue and green “Easter eggs” come from the Americana Chicken, which is as close as we can now get to the old heritage breed Auracana, who are apparently no longer around (or are rare).
I am a big proponent of eating food as fresh, local and natural as possible. So I am really grateful that my son raises chickens for eggs. Farm fresh, free range chicken eggs.
When you purchase eggs at the grocery store, they do not stamp them with the date on which they were laid. They do not stamp the date on which they were packaged, packed or driven to the store, or the day they were placed on the shelf.
Have you ever had an egg that is, shall we say, questionable? Do you abide by the saying "if in doubt, throw it out"?
Wait! You can tell how fresh an egg is by “floating” it in water.
Have you ever noticed the little pocket of air at the end of your eggs? The older the egg, the more air enters it and causes it to stand on that end or, when it begins to really get old or rotten, to float.
Egg Age Guide:
~ A fresh egg lays flat on the bottom of the sink or bowl (unless the bottom is curved as mine is!).
~At about 3-4 days old, it will tip at a slight angle.
~ At about 10 days, it stands upright.
~ If it floats, it is very old and do not use it!
Water and curved glass do distort the images some, but hopefully you can see what I mean.
Above is a picture of two white, store-bought eggs. Notice how they are standing up on one end, indicating that the air bubble is larger in size than the fresher farm eggs below.
The fresh farm eggs above lay flat on the bottom of the sink, but are slightly propped up by the curve of this bowl.
No matter where you get your eggs, you have a way to tell about how long they’ve been “out of the chicken”.
Do you have any egg buying or storage tips?
