How Much For That Yoke

I had asked my wife to get some eggs at the farmers market while she was there. I usually get these really nice, fresh eggs from one of the stands for $3.50. A little expensive, but they are super fresh, put in the carton that morning from chickens that get to hang out in a pen eating their feeds and whatever bugs and stuff they can get their beaks on.

My wife gets back, and I must admit I wasn’t too specific when I had asked her, but she had a quizzical look son her face. She asked something like “You buy THESE eggs?” and I looked at the carton she was showing me. Nope, they weren’t. But hey, eggs at the farmers market were probably all pretty good, right? Then she told me what they cost and I almost fell over. Six dollars for a carton of eggs? Was she nuts? Well, she didn’t want to disappoint me, but there was no way in hell I would have bought six dollar eggs. And I’m not sure who the hell would, but apparently the person who had ordered the carton hadn’t picked them up and it was the end of the day, so my lucky wife got to buy them.

I opened the carton to find rows a very different size eggs, real small, real large and everything in between.

Then…then I cracked one open to make my son a couple of eggs. The yoke was bright yellow, I mean YELLOW. The albumen was wonderfully clear and held itself together in a way I had never quite seen. These were beautiful eggs. I scrambled them really soft, fried ever so lightly and made a frittata for the boy. The yokes were so flavorful with a real intense yokey(?) taste, and hell they looked oh so good on the plate. The simple egg, breakfast food for the many, and I had really amazing specimens. I carefully cooked each one, not wanting to waste them, not just because of the price, but because they were special. I wondered if this is how eggs should be, or what they had been, before the onset of the factory laying facilities. Worth six bucks? They were probably the best eggs I ever had, but not sure if I would fork over that much on a weekly basis. But maybe when I want, perhaps need, a nice plate of eggs…