I will be the first one to tell you that healthy eating or buying local can be expensive.  In our family we make better choices some of the time.  We would love to make all the right choices in the area of food, but it just is too expensive. So, slowly we are making small changes.  One easy and reasonable change we made about three years ago was to buy farm fresh eggs.  Yes, the eggs cost us nearly three times as much at $4.25 a dozen. The truth is that we only went through about two dozen a month and that extra $6 was an easy increase to swallow.

Then just over a year ago, I gave in to my husband’s desire for chickens when my friend had a few chicks ready to leave her house.  We now have a flock of just under twenty and while we are not saving any money, we are enjoying the lessons the chickens provide our children and fresh eggs.  We sell ours to friends for $3 a dozen and always have a nice waiting list.  We use the profits to offset some of the costs, but never come close to breaking even.  If you are thinking you may make money from your backyard flock, I can assure you that you won’t be able to earn much on a small scale farm.

So why choose farm fresh eggs?

• Nutrition:  free range farm chickens produce eggs that have
  • less cholesterol
  • less saturated fat
  • increased vitamins A, E and D
  • more omega-3 fatty acids
  • more beta carotene

• Humane Treatment of Chickens:  Our chickens are like pets and live a great life.  They are eating in the natural environment and therefor their diet is varied.  If you think cage free eggs mean that the chickens that laid your eggs are romping about freely, you are wrong.  It simply means they have access to outside.
• Fuller and Richer Eggs:  While some say that farm fresh eggs taste better, there has not been conclusive studies to that. They sure do look better though.  Our egg yolk are bright orange, so much so that they can change sugar cookie dough to almost an orange color.

• Fresh:  Our eggs come from the chickens, we inspect them, clean them if necessary and then within three days at the very most they are in your refrigerator.  Grocery store eggs can sit up to a month before you ever take them home.

If you can find a local farmer who sells their eggs, I suggest you give them a try! It is a small increase in the grocery budget, but you are supporting a healthier diet as well as the local economy in the process.