Focus on Coop Suppliers:
The Essential Excellent Egg

by Suzanne Fisher 

For years, conventional wisdom held that eggs were bad for people because they were high in cholesterol. Recently the egg has undergone an image renovation as researchers have come to the conclusion that dietary cholesterol has only a minor role to play in an individual’s plasma cholesterol levels.

Now researchers believe that it is not cholesterol in food, but saturated fat in the diet, that influences our blood cholesterol levels most significantly. Because eggs are low in saturated fat and also full of protein, vitamins and minerals, and weigh in at less than 100 calories apiece, they are currently celebrated as healthful. 

The story about eggs, however, is more involved than just going to the grocery store for a dozen of conventionally grown white ovals in a styrofoam package. Research has shown that the diet of the hen influences the nutrition present in the egg. Eggs from chickens that have access to grasses, forbs (broad leafed herbs other than grasses, especially those found in fields, prairies or meadows) and insects contain less fat and cholesterol, and 40% to 62% more vitamin A, up to four times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids, and twice the vitamin E as eggs from chickens that do not. These eggs are also higher in carotenoids such as lutein and zexanthin, which is a difference that can be observed in the dark yellow yolk by the person cracking open the shell.

Beyond the question of the laying hen’s diet are the issues of fossil fuels used to transport eggs from long distances, animal rights issues, supporting regional economies by purchasing from local farmers and freshness, among others. At Honest Weight, we address these issues by offering eggs from many small farms in the Capital District. Before reading about some of the Co-op’s newer egg suppliers, it is important to understand the terms used to describe them. The terms “pastured,” “free range” and “free roaming” all have different connotations that may not be familiar to the egg-buying public. The term “organic” is also a highly controversial word with legal and industrial definitions. 

For the purposes of this article, the these words will be used as follows:

• “Pastured” chickens are those who are on grass together. 

• “Total range confinement” refers to those pastured chickens who are confined to a small area on grass for the purposes of feeding themselves and improving the pasture with their scratching and fertilizing. They are moved at least every day to new grass, and they are free to move inside their enclosure. None of the following farms practice this method.

• “Free-range” chickens are those who are free to move among themselves and have access to outside grass, but who are not required to actually go onto the grass. There is a minimum amount of square footage mandated for each chicken for it to be considered free-range. 

• “Free-roaming” means that the hens have no fence around them at all to confine or protect them. “

• “Organic” implies that the chickens receive only organically grown feed and are also on pasture. To be considered organic, an egg must come from a hen whom has been fed only organic feed from the very beginning of her life. 

Leaping Frog Farm, run by Co-op member Karen White in Berne, raises organic chickens and feeds them organic layer mash put together by Sumner Watson of Cold Spring Farms, in Sharon Springs. Her chickens peruse a half-acre pasture surrounded by a 6-foot fence and enjoy a new, well ventilated chicken house. The house is lighted for heat 10 hours a day in the winter, but the chickens are still free to go out.

Karen started selling eggs officially in 2001 with 25 layers. She now has only 20 hens, but has ordered fresh chicks for this season. She also plans to retire some of her older hens from laying. These will be separated out and fed conventional feed, because of the ever-rising price of grain for the feed. The rising prices reflect the increasing cost of fuel to run tractors and the competition for grain to be used for ethanol. Karen currently has Americana and Rhode Island Red chickens, and will be receiving Lakenvelders, which lay pink-tinged eggs. At her peak production, Karen has supplied Honest Weight with 30 to 32 dozen eggs a week. Right now she brings in 6 dozen, but in six months she will likely have more as her new chicks mature. 

Pik a Chick Farm, owned by Frank, Marlene and Matthew Stanton, is located in Coeymans Hollow, west of Ravena. Pik a Chick currently has 150 to 200 free-range chickens in a pasture that is 150 yards long by 40 feet wide, and which includes grass and hedgerow. The fence, Frank explains, is to keep out the coyotes, foxes and bears. His chickens sleep and lay in a chicken house with 40 nesting areas and fresh shavings and straw. They are fed a locally grown, all-natural grain feed. Frank raises seven or eight different varieties of chickens, which produce an array of different colored eggs. He has been selling eggs for three years and a provides 40 to 50 dozen eggs a week for Honest Weight.

Maschodack Hill Farm, in Nassau, began supplying eggs to Honest Weight this year. The name of the farm is derived from the Algonquin language for the people who inhabited that area, and means “place of fire.” At Maschodack Hill, Jason Strock (brother of Honest Weight’s own Jesse Strock) cares for 30 chickens who are actually free roaming on the farm. They give their chickens a conventional feed without antibiotics, but Jesse says that during the summer the chickens eat mostly bugs and grasses that they find. Predators will occasionally take a bird, but the chicken house where the birds return every evening is close to the house, so that has not been a big problem. Their flock includes Araucanas, Cochins, Brahmas, Wyandottes, Campines and Polishes, to mention a just few, and they lay brown, pink, green, blue and white eggs. Jesse delivers about 10 to 11 dozen eggs to the Co-op every week. 

Cooper’s Ark, a tourist destination farm that has been featured in the Coop Scoop in the past, is located in Cooper Village, near Schoharie. Phil and Pam Metzger currently have 600 chickens roaming their fenced-in pasture. They are expecting 500 more chicks in May and 1,000 more in June. Cooper’s Ark chickens receive Richer Feeds, a feed without hormones, in addition to the plants and insects in their pasture. This farm supplies Honest Weight with three to five cases of eggs a week (each case contains 30 dozen eggs). They have been supplying Honest Weight with eggs for five years,.

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