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| Sarah Nelson - Slow Foodie |
When this city chick (sorry, I can’t resist farm humor) moved to the country, one of my big dreams was having chickens. I was so excited to think that one day I would walk out of my house and find an egg! A real egg! That I could eat! That didn’t come from the store! Maybe you have to be suburbia-grown to really appreciate the miracle of food production the natural way.
And I’m really that big of a geek, or if you are kind, a child at heart, when it comes to all this gardening and farming stuff. The first time I planted my own garden, I was totally skeptical that this dead little bead in my hand would become a plant, but it did! I was equally skeptical that my chickens would lay eggs, but they did! And you know what else? If you have hens and a rooster, you will even have babies! I was really lucky because our first hen that went broody (i.e. got into a family planning state of mind) was super-friendly so she didn’t mind me peeking under her feathered bottom from time to time to see
how things were going in the nest.
As my awareness for all things chicken has grown, I’ve heard all kinds of misinformation about chickens and their eggs.
For instance
MYTH: You can’t have eggs unless you have a rooster.
TRUTH: You can have eggs without a rooster, but you won’t have any babies without him.
This is a great option for town dwellers. Most suburban and urban areas have ban on roosters but not hens. Backyard chicken raising might be possible even for those of you in the ‘burbs!
MYTH: Brown eggs are better for you than white eggs.
TRUTH: Color has nothing to do with it! But environment does!
Chicken meat and eggs are being widely marketed in grocery stores as “organic” or sometimes “uncaged”, but this doesn’t make them better for you because it doesn’t mean that they are pastured. The words “free range” offer a lot of hope, but lobbyists for the farm conglomerates have helped to make the rule for that phrase usage mean that the chicken occupies a cage of at least three square feet. That doesn’t sound very free-range, does it?
And the freedom to range is what makes all the difference in the health benefits of your chicken and eggs. “Pastured” (that’s the key word to look for when shopping) hens are exposed to direct sunlight and eat green plants and bugs. All that sunlight is the key factor in turning their eggs into vehicles for huge doses of Vitamin D. As a matter of fact, www.eatwild.com says that pastured hens have 3 to 6 times higher levels of Vitamin D in their eggs than those of confined hens.
Additionally, www.livestrong.com reports that eggs from pastured hens have “2/3 more vitamin A, three times more vitamin E, seven times more beta carotene and twice the omega-3 fatty acids” of commercially produced eggs.
Eggs of different color
So what do all these vitamins do for you?
Vitamin D:
• Protects against osteoporosis, hypertension, cancer and several autoimmune diseases
Has been used in the treatment of depression
Vitamin E:
• Helps maintain hormonal balances
• Improves immune system functionality
• Regulates Vitamin A
• Improves cardiovascular health
• May help to fight cancer by shielding the body’s cells from free radicals
Vitamin A:
• Prevents some types of cancer
• Aids in growth and development
• Improves immune system functionality
Beta carotene:
• Boosts the immune system
• Improves eye health
• Protection from heart disease and some forms of cancer
Omega-3 fatty acids:
• Improves cardiovascular health – reducing the risk of heart attack and strokes
• Lowers blood pressure
MYTH: Eggs are a source of cholesterol which is bad for you.
FACT: Some cholesterol is necessary for your body to function properly.
Cholesterol helps your body synthesize Vitamin A and helps produce sex hormones.
A far bigger culprit in the war against heart disease is saturated fats. As Jennifer Megyesi states in “The
Joy of Keeping Chickens”: “In fact, eggs contain less saturated fat and calories (2 grams and 75 calories
for a large, 57-gram egg) than a small, lean burger has (268 calories, 7 grams of saturated fat).”
The truth of the matter is you’d probably be better off trying to cut out processed foods from your diet
rather than eggs from pastured hens.
MYTH: You can catch salmonella from eggs.
FACT: According to Megyesi, the risk of contracting salmonellosis from eggs is about one in two million.
Conscientious farmers can reduce the risk of their birds contracting salmonella by keeping their birds
clean and dry and by collecting their eggs often. Birds that live in over-crowded environments have a
greater risk of catching the disease. There is peace of mind in knowing where your eggs are coming
from!
One of my hens with her chick
Megyesi also states that: “…you can discard the yolks and use just the whites of the eggs, which contain antibacterial properties and don’t harbor the bacteria. On the other hand, the yolk harbors the bulk of protein and amino acids, so you will be sacrificing the most nutritious part of the egg by using just the whites.”
Now, that I’ve laid all that science on you, let’s get down to more practical matters….like eating. When I think of cooking with eggs, I think of breakfast, and if I’m forced to really stretch my imagination, baking. Let me blow your mind for a minute: I’m going to suggest incorporating your next egg consumption into dinner!
I stumbled on this humdinger of a recipe in The Tastes of Schoharie County cook book produced by the Times-Journal in 2002. Shout out to my New York fans!!!
Creamed Corn Custard
Submitted by Margaret Garlick
Ingredients:
2 tbs. sugar
1 ½ tbs. cornstarch
1 cup of milk
3 beaten eggs
1 can of cream style corn
½ tsp of salt
1 tbs. of melted butter
A dash of nutmeg
Directions:
Mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Add milk slowly stirring until smooth. Add eggs, corn, butter and
salt. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Place baking dish in pan of hot
water and place both pans in the oven at 300 degrees. Bake for 1 ¾ hours.
Happy eating!
Sarah
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