Egg Question

[chefkate]

A farmer down the road from us sells "Organic Fertile Eggs".
Organic I know, but what the heck does FERTILE mean?!?!?

 

[bitmover]

It just means he has a rooster with the hens, and if he let the hens sit on the egg, it would hatch. They don't taste any different. I suppose some might argue that they have more nutritional value, but I doubt it's much. We have chickens, and had a rooster for a while, and personally, I'm a little more comfortable eating the non-fertile eggs -- it's probably silly on my part. Hope I don't put you off the eggs -- the farm fresh eggs really are yummy! Once you have them it's hard to eat even store-bought organic eggs -- they just don't taste as good to me.

 

[chefkate]

thank you! no, you didn't put me off on eggs!
i'm a huge fan of fresh eggs too. i get them as often as i can. i have 3 dozen in my fridge right now..... sooooo different from organic at the store. the yolk is so bright - even our pancakes have an orange hue to them!

 

[RapidBreath]

Well, see there was this rooster who came over and had a good time with those eggs and left smiling. He put his two cents in

 

[Peaceful Rainbow]

Fresh from the chicken eggs will have a much nicer colored yolk. You might notice a small red dot in the yolk which is the embryo, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them. I'll spare you the spots nickname.

 

[Stebby]

So ... when you're talking eggs, FERTILE means FERTILIZED? I never knew that before! I guess it would turn people off if they used the term "fertilized" - I'm getting an image of cracking open an egg and a chick coming out, which is kind of off-putting.

 

[syzygy314]

Well, my mother told me a story once (this is why she won't touch eggs anymore) about when she was making breakfast as a little girl and cracked a fresh egg in the pan - there was a tiny chick in it, not just a "spot." I guess that could have happened back then, but I would think these days it's much easier to avoid that sort of thing!

Her story did nothing to put me off of eggs! I love them!

 

[Peaceful Rainbow]

Tricia I definitely heard stories like that, but it didn't seem to stop any of my older relatives from eating eggs. Apparently, sometimes the eggs didn't get found right away! My grandparents on both sides were farmers and they always kept enough laying hens for eggs.

 

[lauramangano]

The difference between store bought eggs and fresh farm eggs is huge. IMO, there is no comparison in taste. That being said, I get my eggs from both my cousin and father, both of whom keep hens AND roosters and I have to tell you that I have cracked an egg on numerous occasions that are "fertilized". It is a little startling, but I just scrape it out into the garbage and reach for another one.