Egg-stra, Egg-stra...

Yesterday I ordered a "Farm Fresh Eggs For Sale" sign to go at the end of our driveway.

At the moment there are eight dozen eggs in my refrigerator. And, I've already taken a tray of deviled eggs to a pot-luck dinner this week.

Let me put this in perspective. I dream of actually paying the mortgage with income from this farm before I actually reach retirement age, but currently this place is still a small hobby farm.

Mark and I used to watch Martha Stewart with her hen house and talk about how we'd have a few chickens to produce fresh eggs for us if we were ever able to move home to the family farm. Setting up the hen house was one of the first things we did when we made that move. Initially we filled our hen house with hand-me-down hens. Those are hens that a local kid in 4-H wanted to pass off so she could get new chicks.

Last spring, I packed up eggs and took them to a new farmer's market on several Saturdays. Business didn't really cover the cost of my gas into town. I bagged up llama poop and sold it and then took honey too. Eventually, other obligations began to make more sense than carting my eggs off to the farmer's market when the profit margin was low to non-existent.

This was about the same time that we decided to order some new chicks. And these are the girls that are filling my fridge up with eggs right now. I'm fairly certain that as I type, they are in the coop competing to see who can lay the most eggs today. I'm starting to think about the farmer's market again.

This is where I start to sound like the shrimp guy from Forest Gump. We've eaten boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, fritatta, omelets and a host of other egg dishes. If I need to take a dish somewhere, you can bet I'm taking deviled eggs or a pound cake (they require about five eggs).

I recently read an article in Hobby Farm Home magazine about how to freeze eggs to use in baked goods later. I've done that once and suspect I'll be freezing some today.

I've noticed someone down the road is taking orders for fresh sausage. I'm going to place an order today and see if I can exchange some eggs for sausage - or at least a discount. The barter system worked out pretty well with another local farmer.

I've even shared a few eggs with Dave and Laura at Kitchen Roselli. (Much to my surprise, Mark just called to say they'd added a link on their site about yesterday's blog and commented on the very eggs I'm writing about.) I think Dave and the boys have a bit of a competition going over who can make the best omelet in the family.

So Egg-stra, Egg-stra. If you're in the area and want to buy or barter for some farm fresh eggs, just let us know. According to the North Carolina Extension Office, we can sell up to 30 dozen a week without getting official with grading and such. If we get to that point, you'll see a blog about chicken pie, chicken and dumplings, fried chicken....And, please post your egg recipes here.