Tuesday

[magid]

Why aren't there white organic eggs?

---

done

• notarized, witnessed, signed, photocopied, and sent in the paperwork for the mortgage reconfiguration
  
• faxed in the NDA for [special project] Thursday at the National Braille Press *bounce of excitement*
  
• bought some very tiny new red and white potatoes at the farmer's market

---

dinner

• scrambled eggs with new onions and their greens, plus mozzarella
  
• roasted summer squash and onions
  
• pickles
  
• green salad (red leaf, green leaf, romaine, radicchio, basil, tomato, hearts of palm, boiled potatoes, and a apricot-ginger mustard vinaigrette)
  
• fruit pie (plum, kiwi, apple, mango)

---

Today's weather would've been much better for helping with a move than yesterday's.

Comments

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

There are white organic eggs. I've bought them. However, I had to go to Saugus to get them.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Saugus is a bit far to go (time, gas, etc). I wonder why they have them there, but not closer to Boston.

D'you remember the brand? Perhaps I'll email them.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Wild PricesHarvest, house brand. For some reason the one in Medford doesn't have 'em.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Huh. How odd they'd have them one place and not another.

I hesitate to ask how much they were per dozen, though...

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I believe the price centered around $2.50 or so per dozen, which is in line with organic eggs elsewhere.

[magid.livejournal.com]

That's not bad, though of course, I'd rather the Trader Joe's price for organic eggs...

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Hey, I did one of those things today, too!
See you Thursday night. Practicing my braille! ;-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Heh. I tried to teach myself Braille from one of those cards when I was young, but it always felt like a bunch of poppy seeds, randomly scattered. Sign language (or at least, finger spelling) was much easier, and more useful in classes, too ;-)

Looking forward to tomorrow, though. See you there!

[jaq.livejournal.com]

All the eggs here are brown. It's strange seeing white ones.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Different species of chicken lay different colors of eggs. Apparently English types are all brown egg ones.
(There used to be an advert on TV with a jingle about how "brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh." Which later turned out to be less than wholly accurate, but it sounds like it would be true for England!)

It's easier to candle white eggs, which is why I have a preference for them; they're much less likely to have a blood spot (or more). And kosher rules prohibit eating blood*. I once had a dozen brown eggs only half of which were usable.

* Which makes the whole medieval blood libel thing that much more ironic.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

What does it mean to "candle" an egg?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Holding an egg up in front of a candle (or other bright light source, these days), to see if it has blood spots, or had become fertilized, or other internal imperfections that would make it less than optimal for sale. White shells are easier to see through than brown, so white eggs are less likely to have blood spots.

[jaq.livejournal.com]

Hehe I think theora has told me about that jingle. We've sometimes been getting eggs from a farm near Waltham Abbey, so those are definitely local and probably fresh.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd hope they'd be fresh!

The farm I have a share with has chickens (I found out when I went strawberry picking), and I'd be willing to try a dozen of their eggs whatever the color (and hope for the best), but there weren't any available when I was there.

It's very cool that you can get eggs so close to you.

[(Anonymous)]

I only buy white for the same reason. Brown have such an incredibly high incidence of blood! But I never realized it was due to the pre-screening. Thanks for the information. (But, hmmm, I did buy organic or free-range or some such natural-type white eggs once, and they had a high incidence of blood.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the place that generated eggs didn't check them? There's definitely variation in quality of checking. Blood spots are more likely in the brown ones, but I've had white ones that had blood as well. I'm not sure I'm willing to pay Wild Harvest brand prices for eggs, even if they're white and organic.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, that's probably so, that the small, "natural" operation didn't check them.

I've had a very low incidence of blood with plain, white, supermarket eggs. I've also found that when I do find blood even in those, more often than would be random there are multiple such eggs in the same dozen.

This is very interesting to think about now with the perspective of the pre-screening. Thank you.

We used to feed the unkosher eggs to the cat, so as not to waste and to give a treat. The cat would, therefore, come running at the sound of any eggs being cracked.

I somehow cannot recall, however, how we would handle the glass after it contained the offensive egg, and am always at a loss as to what to do now. Can't use my sponge on it, in my sink, etc., or I treif up everything. Last time, after dumping the egg in the toilet, I washed the glass out in the bathroom with hot water and bathroom soap after dumping the egg in the toilet, then washed it in the kitchen as normal. What do you do?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd never thought about doing anything other than throwing the eggs away. And since the blood spots are usually on the yolk, which is surrounded by the white, I haven't worried that the measuring cup (the clear kind, obviously) would be traifed. I put the egg in the trash, then rinse out the cup thoroughly.

Side note: I took a class at Nishmat on kashrut (years ago, now), and was surprised to learn that if it's a distinct blood spot, then one is permitted to remove just the blood spot (and a bit around it), and the rest of the egg is permissible. Which is probably also a factor in why I'm not so concerned with the cup and the sink and such.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, the cat didn't keep kosher, and eggs were good for him. He enjoyed them.

That's interesting, the tidbit about removing the bloodied area only.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*nod* about the cat. I've barely had pets, so I tend not to pay attention to using food for non-people.

I've never actually taken just a part of the egg out, btw; it seems more trouble than its worth, to me.

[(Anonymous)]

I would not have thought of using the egg for non-people except for having grown up with the experience. We didn't feed much of any other humans' food to the cat. (Maybe people with dogs are more used to doing so.) It was only the egg. Makes cats' coats nice and shiny.

In recent years, however, I've learned of other foods that are good for cats, including canned pumpkin and brewer's yeast.

One Pesach we fed meat (cow) to the fish. That was weird.

Normal fish food -- the flakes -- has chametz, so on Pesach we would use dried worms.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I remember friends having to figure out what to feed their cat for Pesach, and learning that it's not just because it's cheaper that they would get cat food rather than people food the rest of the year for it. (Er, that's grammatically ungraceful. Sorry about that.)

Pumpkin? Cool. Due to the beta-carotenes?
(Brewer's yeast I've never used, so it doesn't feel as useful. Though perhaps I should figure out what to do with it, since I keep hearing it's so healthy.)

[(Anonymous)]

I like it that you are concerned about grammar!

Was it that your friends were trying to figure out what to feed their cat for Pesach not to the extent of researching which cat foods would be chametz-free, but rather they were planning on feeding the cat kosher l'Pesach people food and trying to make sure it was well-balanced for a cat's diet?

The cat food (and fish food) situation is an example I use when trying to explain why something can be kosher l'Pesach but not kosher.

Pumpkin I believe has to do with digestion. I forget the purpose of the brewer's yeast. I think garlic might be another one, but I might be misremembering.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I have to be concerned with grammar; it's my profession :-).

I think they hadn't realized at the time that there might be cat food that was kosher l'Pesach, and assumed they'd be feeding their cat cans of tuna (etc.). I will mention that these friends have been known to be much more strict than halacha requires in a number of instances, "just to be on the safe side." (This is not where I am...)

You're getting me in the mood to eat pumpkin, and they're totally not in season yet!

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

One of the things I found peculiar when I moved to Boston was the relative difficulty of finding white eggs. (Brown eggs are much more uncommon in Texas.) The grocery stores I typically aptronized in MA carried mostly brown eggs, and I think there was one 12-pack I bought that had all of 4 usable eggs. So I started making a point of going to the most convenient store on Wednesdays since that was the day new merchandise (including a limited supply of white eggs) arrived.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I find it odd that there are stores without white eggs, but I have found a number that always have them. And at Market Basket, they're even cheaper than the brown ones :-)

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, it annoys me that white eggs tend to be more expensive and harder to find in large variety here, when they tend to be less problematic for kashrut. But then I too discovered that the whites are cheaper than the brown at MB!

When eggs are expensive, and then one or more are unusable, it upsets me. But, it should be the most of my troubles.

Now that I eat my eggs mostly hard-boiled, it's even more important to avoid purchasing bloody ones.

I found a place to which to move, incidentally. It's a tiny electric stove there. I'm used to gas stoves. Have you ever kashered an electric stove?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I figure that eggs are still pretty cheap protein, but it definitely annoys me if I have more than perhaps one egg that's unusable.

I thought that if one hard boils at least three eggs, then one doesn't worry about blood spots, since the probability is that there's perhaps one, and it will be bitul b'rov.
(That wouldn't've helped the one egg where the whole white was bloody, presumably; I'm glad I found that one without hard-boiling being involved.)

Congratulations on the new place!

I have kashered an electric stove. For some reason, I've found them to usually be more annoying to clean, but otherwise, the process is the similar: clean, then maximum heat for the appropriate number of minutes.

Worse for me than kashering the stovetop is the oven. A medal for whoever invented self-cleaning ovens!

[(Anonymous)]

I hadn't heard the solution of boiling at least three eggs. Thanks for that idea.

I have heard a flippant, "Well, it is rare to find blood spots, so don't worry about blood for boiled eggs." Ha! Nice answer, right?

I think what concerns me along with what happens during the boiling of the eggs is what happens should I cut into a boiled egg with a knife or a slicer (or bite into one) only to find blood.

Thank you for the congrats. It's a relief to know I'll be housed.

I don't even know how to clean and electric stove! I know how to clean (and have a certain method of kashering) the burners and such on a gas stove, but I don't know a thing about the elements of an electric stove.

I wish I had a self-clean oven. I have learned, however, that ammonia (janitorial strength) works pretty well instead of oven cleaner for cleaning an oven.

My mother would take challah by burning the bit of dough on the self-clean cycle in the oven!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've never bit/sliced a hard-boiled egg and found a blood spot. It may be because I mostly use white eggs, but still, it hasn't happened yet.

Housing: I hope the move is an easy one.

The electric stoves I've dealt with had a way of unhooking the element itself to tilt up, so you could clean underneath. I don't remember particular products, other than whatever cleaners we had around.

I haven't used ammonia, just the Easy-Off sorts of products, and hated the task. When I last moved, I decided that I'd always been the roommate who ended up cleaning the oven, and I was sick of it, so got a self-cleaning one. May your next place after this have one!

I never thought of using self-clean for taking challah, though! It burns well enough wrapped in foil as it is. Recently, my batches have been too small to take challah from, even without a blessing.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for your good wishes regarding both the move and having a self-cleaning oven in the future. I hope so too.

Thank you as well for the information regarding how to deal with the electric stove elements.

[(Anonymous)]

That really bugs me, when I buy a dozen and several are unusable. But only four were usable? Wow. Oh, but they were brown eggs, so I believe it. And maybe this batch wasn't pre-screened very well, on top of that.

Stores don't seem to care when I've come back complaining about multiple unusable eggs in the dozen I'd bought, wanting a refund. They don't get why it was a problem, perhaps, even though I explain. It's not considered a valid complaint.

What is it with Boston and brown eggs? It's not only Texas; it isn't like that in the NYC/NJ area. I think Boston must be the anomaly here.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Maybe it really is that local producers have brown-egg-laying chickens, so that jingle is true?

I've never thought to bring eggs back, but I tend not to manage bringing almost anything back (nor shipping things back, when it's a long-distance purchase; it's why I don't tend to buy clothes online).

PS

[magid.livejournal.com]

The oddest dozen I ever got was at the Butcherie. Almost all of the eggs were double-yolked, and one of them was triple-yolked.

Re: PS

[(Anonymous)]

That's pretty cool. Isn't that considered lucky?

I wonder what caused your dozen to contain such eggs, whether it was random, had to do with the fertility of the chickens or something, or was purposely done in the pre-screening process.

Re: PS

[magid.livejournal.com]

I don't know about lucky (I wish), but it was pretty neat. I don't know how likely it is that chickens will have in-egg twins. And I don't know how much extra cholesterol I got from them, either :-)

Re: PS

[(Anonymous)]

Oy, probably slightly under double the cholesterol of a regular egg. The whites have no cholesterol, I believe, and a double yolk is probably slightly smaller than two separate yolks.

Yes, it sounds like it was neat.

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

>> What is it with Boston and brown eggs?

Wish I knew! It's a big puzzle to me, and I was relieved when I moved to Georgia and found myself back in the land of white eggs.

[(Anonymous)]

The land of white eggs -- I like that!

I always worry about sounding snobby (thinking of _Little House on the Prairie_) or worse, somehow racist, in seeking white eggs.

People haven't believed my claim about how prevalent blood spots or worse are in brown eggs. I'm so glad now to have a technical reason to back up what I know from observation.

Perhaps more information than you needed?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I posed your white organic egg question to my friend the organic-guru and this is the response I received:

There ARE white organic eggs. If they're seen in less abundance, there are a number of possible reasons:

1. Most varieties of chickens lay brown eggs. Some are white, some are "rainbow" (green / blue / lavender / pink). And many small-time organic farmers like all the funky varieties of chickens. If they have variety, chances are they'll have mostly brown eggs.

2. Commercial white eggs are generally laid by Leghorn hens. Leghorns are one of the few full-sized breeds that would naturally lay every day (most full-size chickens lay every other day). In commercial settings, hens lay three times a day because of the hormones, 24-hour light, and cages that force them to be in a squat every minute of their lives. Organic farmers couldn't compete with this if they tried. So they don't.

3. Organic farmers might be trying to break the stereotype of white eggs -- or differentiate their product.

4. From what I've seen, under natural conditions, white-egg hens tend to lay smaller eggs, which are less marketable. I think it's just a matter of the breed characteristics; they tend to be smaller hens.

5. I could be wrong, but I think all the breeds that produce big eggs and reasonably meaty poultry (without hormones) are brown egg layers. I've heard that 70% of chicks are male (which I am not sure I believe), so all those roosters have to be useful for an organic farm to make its bills.

Interesting tidbit: Bantam hens are like their full-size counterparts in every way but two: They are little, and almost all varieties lay a 2/3 sized egg every day. Compared to big every-other-day hens, they'd be a boon to the environment and to farms... except there's no market for small eggs. Never mind that I've heard people wish that they could have 1.5 eggs for breakfast. Never mind that people don't usually modify their recipes based on whether they have regular or extra large eggs.

Re: Perhaps more information than you needed?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Er, oops. I did reply to you, and put it in the wrong place. Plus I'm feeling lazy enough to not bother copying and pasting and deleting the wrongly-placed one.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Wow! I never expected so much thoroughness for an idle wondering. Thank you.

I knew that different kinds of chickens have different colors of eggs (it would be so cool if the non-brown, non-white kinds were more available; I've never seen them).

I hadn't realized that brown eggs might be seen as distinguishing, since I'm from the white-egg-challenged area, the northeast.

Last time I was in Chinatown, I bought 2.5 dozen small eggs. I never even see small eggs in the regular supermarkets! They were cheap ($1.79), and I think if I did bake anything, I added an extra egg or two to make up for the smaller size.

Side thought: farmer's markets around here seem to have branched into cheese, baked goods, plants, and even meat. I wonder why no one offers eggs?