These are my eggs... This is a grocery store 'jumbo' egg carton... That is as far as the lid is physically able to close. When I give them to customers, I have to use one of those extra, extra big rubber bands to hold the whole thing even semi-closed. And you can forget about stacking the cartons! Since we are so obviously at least one, if not more, sizes above the jumbo grade, a new name for our new class was clearly in order. Thus, I present to you, Free Range, All Natural, Happy Brown Eggs, " Size Gargantatron."
This year we've added yet another element to our annual autumnal preservation activities, but rather than the usual fruit canning and vegetable freezing, this time around it's eggs. yep. With the ever looming threat of an egg avalanche thanks to our overachieving hens, and with friends and family already fully stockpiled, in desperation I turned to the internet for aid. and..it took about 3.4 minutes. According to my careful research, people have been successfully freezing eggs since the dawn of time. Just about, anyways. Freezing eggs is a good way to take advantage of excess eggs during the laying season against the winter, though only recommended for use in baking or mixing with other ingredients, rather than as a straight up omelet. A convenient method is to use an ice cube tray, but due to the large size of my own eggs, I substituted muffin tins. Crack your egg, use a fork to gently mix to an even consistency while avoiding air bubbles, and pop those puppies in the freezer.
Either our hens have decided to cooperate with the groundhog day forecast for an early spring this year, or the recent unseasonably warm weather has gotten everyone in the coop feelin' a little frisky...today's haul was a whopping ten eggs from six very industrious hens. Large omelets are quickly becoming de rigeur in the our household, if only as an attempt to preserve space in a refrigerator which otherwise would be in danger of turning into an egg warehouse.
Observe, to the left, a standard, white, store-bought egg. Compare this unremarkable example, dear readers, to what is clearly a paragon of poultry production! This thing is a monster. It has subsequently become the standard to which all other chicken creations must be compared. (Seriously, we haven't eaten it. Every other generously sized egg is immediately measured against "THE BIG ONE").
* the producer of these colossal spawn has since been identified. unsurprisingly, it is the maverick hen with an unshakable sense of independence and a thirst for adventure. this manifests itself as a particular penchant for the consumption of our neighbor's birdseed...this addiction to pillaging and plundering off premises, so to speak, would normally result in a swift and inescapable sentence. but. those are damn big eggs.
After six months of waiting, our single hen has finally started to produce eggs. The excitement over this small milestone has, at least temporarily, softened our longstanding grudges against her aggressive and noisy male companions.
