Once you have farm fresh eggs, you realize what terrible reproductions you’ve actually been eating. They are rich and the yolks are a deep orange and they stand up in the pan, not like those pale yellow things that just lay there.

I swear I remember my grandma having chickens when I was very little, but my aunt says she has no recollection of that. I know we had extended family with chickens, ducks, geese, guinea hens, and pheasants. I have always wanted chickens but have never lived where I could have them. One of my dearest friends had chickens. They lived in town and city council had just approved a certain number of chickens per household. The only thing was, you couldn’t have roosters. She got a batch of fancy chicks and was assured they had been sexed and there were no roosters. Well, when the time came, there was a great deal of cock-a-doodle-dooing coming from the chicken coop and the town officials were on her. She tried like crazy to find homes but everyone had their quota and we ended up butchering them, thinking we would at least have some chicken meat out of the ordeal. No such luck. They were so scrawny they might as well have been songbirds. And the whole episode was thoroughly traumatic for all involved.

I have a cousin in WV who had a couple of huge chicken houses where they produced fertilized eggs for the poultry industry. We went to visit once and I was shocked at the sheer volume of chickens and the noise. They did a great job of keeping it clean but man, it was a lot of work picking eggs every day. I asked my cousin if she would send us home with some eggs. I was SO disappointed. I pictured them being like farm eggs but they were worse than store bought because their only purpose was reproduction, not food.

Speaking of eggs, besides the obvious upcoming Easter holiday, Passover is this week. At the Seder, the traditional meal on the first and second nights of Passover, a Seder plate is laid out with, among other things, an egg to symbolize the arrival of spring and new growth. The Last Supper was a Passover Seder. I would like to wish my family and friends a Happy Passover. I have been so busy this week, I forgot to say anything.