We’ve meant to post for awhile about the eggs this summer. The chickens roam through a wooded area all day, eating whatever they find that looks good to them. Eggyolks tend to reflect the chickens’ diets - the yellower they are, the more stuff they are finding to eat containing carotenoids (such as beta carotene).

For awhile, the chickens had found something to eat that was making their yolks astonishingly orange. Not even yellow anymore, but really orange. We think it was probably most likely some red and orange honeysuckle berries. Wild birds love those too. Some chickens tend to forage more than others, which might account for the differences between eggs in the same flock. The eggs in this picture are quite toned down compared to some we were getting for awhile. But they still bear a striking resemblance to the gorgeous delicious “Sunsugar” cherry tomatoes that are coming in finally….

Here are a couple pictures of the eggs at the height of their colorfulness, a couple weeks ago. First, a favorite recipe - homegrown tomato sauce warmed to simmering in a pan, then a few eggs dropped into it to poach. Heavenly spread on crunchy toast, with fresh basil.

And, just regular fried eggs, cooked in cast iron. Lots of range of colors to the yolks. If you’ve ever wondered why “yellow cake” was called yellow cake, this is it! The yellow that we’re all drawn to is supposed to come from healthy eggyolks, not red and yellow dye!