If animal welfare is a concern, you are making a good
step in the right direction by purchasing only Certified
Organic or Certified Humane eggs. If you’ve got a local
farmers’ market where you can actually talk to the farmer
producing the eggs you’re purchasing, you’re making an
even better decision. Of course, the very best thing you can
do is to build your own coop (or, better yet, convince your
neighbor to do so) and keep a couple chickens. It won’t
save you much money in the long run, unless you keep a
large flock and eat a lot of eggs, but you’ll have the
freshest-possible eggs and probably make plenty of friends
in the process.
Q: That’s all well and good for the chickens, but do
Certified Organic or local eggs taste better, like the guys
at the farmers’ market would like you to think?
That’s a good question, and one that I’ve wondered about
often. It seems natural that a happier, healthier chicken
roaming around a backyard poking, scratching, eating bugs
and worms, clucking, and doing all the charming and funny
things chickens do should produce tastier eggs, right? I
mean, I know that some of the best-tasting eggs I’ve ever
eaten have come fresh out of the coops or backyards of
friends who keep their own flocks. The yolks were richer,
the whites tighter and more flavorful, and it was just an all-
around better experience. Or was it? What if all their
greatness was simply in my head?
To test this, I organized a blind tasting in which I had
tasters taste regular supermarket eggs, plain organic eggs,
organic eggs with varying levels of omega-3, and eggs fresh