Get Yolked!
Eggs...what else can I say? They really are the incredible, edible egg! The photo above shows on the left shows standard vegetarian fed, cage free DHA eggs. On the right is the ever impressive organic, pastured egg.
Notice that despite the DHA supplement that the eggs on the left pale in color and are a good deal smaller than the pastured egg. This goes to show the quality of natural diet for the animals we eat, and shows that while choosing a vegetarian fed source of eggs is far superior to the cheap bi-product fed egg, they still fall short in nutrient density compared to pastured, free range happy omega 3 making chickens.
Pastured eggs have a richer flavor as well, the shells are tougher and harder to crack. The fat quality is going to be much less inflammatory in a pastured egg than a grain fed vegetarian fed egg. The Omega 3 will be higher with all the grass fed protein sources than standard conventional grain fed sources. Right now the only commercial source of pastured eggs i am aware of is Alexander Kids Farms out of Crescent City. You can purchase these eggs for about $5.45 a dozen ( at ENF, you will pay more at Co-op) which for me means I don't get to use them exclusively. I am checking out a local source of pastured eggs right now that will run less than $4.00 per dozen which is a huge bargain for such a quality product.
Why should you spend a little extra on eggs? The more omega 3 we get naturally through quality fed sources of protein the less fish oil we have to supplement with and the less inflammation we have, also for those of us super sensitive to gluten and grain, if we are what we eat then even grain fed eggs could possibly still be causing gut issues, some apparent and some more subtle.
If you are interested in pastured eggs keep an eye on the blog and the Facebook for more info in the coming weeks!