I sell my spare eggs each week, normally to friends in the village, either through playgroup or at the school gate (where I feel strangely like a drug dealer trying to push eggs onto people!).
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| Egg shaming picture on Facebook - all good fun. |
If you wash them the protective film is washed off as well and then we'd have to store them in the fridge. Apparently most people in the Us store their eggs in the fridge where as over her they're just kept on the side. This article here explains why we don't refrigerate them far better than I could.
I do remember fridges having egg racks in them years ago but that seems to have gone now.
Do you keep your eggs in the fridge or on the side?
Do you wash your eggs before sale?
It's wonderful that you can give others the opportunity to enjoy your extra produce Kev:) I know what you mean about the strange feeling of a drug dealer doing this...but in reality, there's nothing wrong about it except that you feel odd because not everyone gets into trading these days. If others benefit from all effort you put in the product, you owe to get a return unless they cannot give anything back at all. I want to overcome this timidness myself and plan to sell surplus of what we have next year...whatever little I could. Nothing better than homegrown products!! Can't even get them from Tesco;P
ReplyDeleteVery simple answer to dirty eggs..........use sanitising egg wash. Few drops in jug of warm water. clean cloth each day,wipe don't put in the water, dry with kitchen roll.
ReplyDeleteWe were selling in big numbers at one time ..10 doz a day it was a long job but worth it for the safety hygiene factor. I wouldn't clean or use eggs as dirty as those you show they would go straight in the compost.
We dont wash eggs again because we dont store in the fridge although the eggs are mainly clean, any dirty shells get washed before cracking to avoid any contamination.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on a farm in Western Canada, we did not wash our eggs. If there was bits or whatever on them, we gave them a quick wipe. We kept the in a bowl, but with nine kids they were gone fast, if we had some left in the bowl after breakfast into the fridge they went.We did sell them,so another wipe...many town folk did not know where the egg came from and Mom did not want to lose the buyer.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Dawn on this, also, dry on kitchen paper(plain paper)and the paper goes in the compost. Shells are dried, ground down and added to the grit bowl,compost or in pots of compost when planting seedlings, along with dried seaweed which, I also feed to the hens.
ReplyDeleteWe never washed our eggs until just before they were to be used.
ReplyDeleteMost people in the US have no other option than store eggs which are washed, so of course they have to be refrigerated. Of our own eggs, I never wash them and store them for quite awhile in a basket on the countertop. I only sell my cleanest eggs unwashed. This past summer was so hot that I found they lasted longer in the fridge, so I would keep about 8 dozen refrigerated, rotating the cartons so we used the oldest first.
ReplyDeleteI think I must be the minority on this one. Every egg I collect gets washed, especially the duck eggs as the ducks have a habit of droping then wherever they happen to be standing at the time. The quail eggs I didn't because the hens always laid in their dust bath box of sand so they were immaculate. Kitchen = poo free zone. Usually.
ReplyDeleteIf they're as dirty as the ones you show, I'd wash them - I definitely wouldn't waste them! I do understand the rules and reasons for not washing eggs, and personally I think a bit of muck proves they are genuine home-laid eggs.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could sell them when they're completely clarted like those in the picture, and I wouldn't want them in my kitchen like that. Since they're usually sold within six days of being laid I reckon they're much fresher than those you buy so any reduction in the protective film won't matter. I've never had any complaints! Nor have I ever had a problem using washed eggs.
Oh - and not in the fridge. They cook better from room temp.
We never wash our eggs, but we don't get muddy eggs, either. We sell surplus eggs, maybe 3 dozen a week, and that pays for the chickens' feed. A win win for everyone. We don't refrigerate, either. Living in a rural area, people know about dirt on eggs and have no problems with that. Our eggs are also organic and in high demand.
ReplyDeleteI've always gotten washed eggs from whomever I bought from. We keep ours in the fridge........always have, so I guess a creature of habit.
ReplyDeleteWe rarely wash our eggs and we keep them in a bowl by the stove always on the ready for use. If they have manure on them I'll wash it off and use the egg immediately. Once in a rush I cracked a dirty egg and some "debri" fell in the cookie dough. It looked just like the other chocolate chips so didn't bother to fish it out. No one died.
ReplyDeleteIn the fridge only when outside temperatures get close to incubator temps (its not pleasant!) and if I have to wash very dirty eggs they go in the fridge for us to eat. I only sell clean eggs. Its the dirty chicken feet that are the problem :)
ReplyDeleteI do wash ours if they need it, and all our eggs are stored in the fridge.
ReplyDeleteEggs go off quicker if they are subjected to variable temperatures, so the fridge is the one place in the house that is ALWAYS the same. We have a dozen out on the worktop in a bowl ready for immediate use as they are best used at room temperature.
We never used to clean our quail eggs and would keep them in a basket on the kitchen side. I have no intention of cleaning our eggs in the future when we get a new flock either
ReplyDelete