For those who eat pastured eggs...

[mama1803]

do you eat eggs in the winter? If so, what kind?

I have been buying pastured eggs from Polyface since the spring. The hens have stopped laying already and now I'm out of eggs. I've gotten so used to having delicious, healthy pastured eggs that I find supermarket eggs to be a bit of a turnoff now. So what do I do?

[pixiepunk]

we keep our own chickens and they lay year round. obviously they can't truly be pastured during winter months since nothing is growing and there are no bugs for them to eat, but i mean you have to feed them over the winter whether you make your own or buy commercially made feed, and while they slow down production they don't stop laying. we supplement a lot in the winter with dried edible flowers and things like nettles and comfrey and i give them kefir and ACV, plus they always get our kitchen scraps - that way they stay healthy and the eggs stay yummy. though the yolks are always paler in the winter except when we're feeding them marigolds.

the volume is certainly different in the winter, so polyface might only sell to certain markets (like restaurants) and not sell to individuals (or not to every market - since they do deliveries/drop-offs all over VA).

so my advice would be to find someone closer to you. where i live it's very rural and everyone has an 'egg lady' but even in more metropolitan areas you should be able to find someone who has good eggs to sell over the winter. maybe ask at your nearest health food store, or chiropractor, natural parenting group, midwife, doula, etc - someone who's likely to know lots of people and could hook you up. also, if you have a local farmer's market, check there while it's still in season, most will be closing for the winter soon. but i know at our farmer's market there are lots of people who sell eggs but not too many bring them to the actual farmer's market, you just pick them up at the farm when you want some. and even if the farmer you ask doesn't do it him/herself, s/he'll probably know someone who does.

[GardenStream]

I get my eggs from the Amish family down the road. All summer they have a sign out by the road, but in the winter the sign disappears. It's taken us a year, but we finally were told that we could still come by and get eggs in the winter. I guess only the people they really are told that eggs are available year round.

If the Amish don't have our eggs then we get them at our market which sells only local and organic products. They're almost $3 a dozen there, so I really try to avoid having to go there.

[mamadelbosque]

I buy eggs locally, and can get them year round. They tend to be a bit harder to find from about dec-feb but they're out there. You just have to feed them some.

[Magelet]

I still eat them when I can get them, and don't eat regular store eggs. Most of the chickens here don't stop laying entirely, just cut way back.

In winter, I've been known to drag my DP bodily across the farmer's market at a run to get one of 2 or 3 dozen eggs at prices higher than I normally pay. It makes me feel like I live in communist russia or something, how crazy I get about getting my hands on pastured eggs. And then in the spring, when they start laying lots again, I go crazy over eggs and want to buy dozens more than we can eat lol.

[Kelilah]

We have our own hens, and our coop has a light on an automatic timer; from late October through mid-May, the light comes on early in the morning, shuts off when the sun comes up, and then comes on for another hour and a half in the evening. This tricks the chickens into thinking that the days aren't getting shorter so it's always summer, and they keep laying. Our hens don't even cut back, though occasionally in the autumn one of them will molt, and one of ours went broody this spring. (We only have three and get more eggs than we can eat.)

Maybe go on Craigslist and see if anyone has backyard eggs to sell? If you were in my neighborhood, I'd totally sell you some cheap, or even just give them away if I really had a pileup.

Or you could get your own hens. They're sooooo low-maintenance, you have no idea.

[cristeen]

Our source continues to sell, but rather than having a whole buttload available, he only has a box or two, so if you're not there first thing, you're out of luck. In that case, i do buy eggs at WF.

And i'm jealous of the mama who's complaining about $3/dzn eggs... I pay $5 and say "thank you". Even organic battery supermarket eggs are minimum $4.xx here.

[stephienoodle]

OP, if you're local-ish to Polyface and aren't buying from a buying club further away, you might want to try Sunrise Farm for eggs this time of year. They are the farm that provides feed to Polyface and pasture their laying hens. They're in Stuart's Draft, about a 1/4 mile from the Cheese Shop (in case that's familiar). They generally have eggs throughout the winter, but in lower quantity. They usually only run out near the holidays when more folks are getting eggs for baking. There are other options available in Charlottesville, if you're near... PM me and I'll send you a big list.