Buying Eggs

photos by Paul Ferney

Remember when I wondered if we could buy eggs from our neighbor? Well it turns out that yes, we most certainly can. And it’s an errand my kids are always delighted to volunteer for.

We start with an empty basket.

Then, any of the kids interested in this little field trip head next door…

…passing grazing cows on their way.

Madame Lucienne helps them pick out the eggs. Two euros per dozen.

In this case, we were buying 4 dozen eggs for the Easter Party.

Then, we head home.

The eggs are so delicious that we look for recipes that require lots of them — things like omelettes and egg salad sandwiches.

Have you ever bought eggs from a neighbor? Did you feel like they tasted better than store-bought ones? What other sorts of egg-y recipes should I try?

129 thoughts on “Buying Eggs”

  1. They are also much higher in nutritional value if the chickens are ranging around. We eat quiche, and poached eggs over rice with kale a lot. (101 cookbooks has an amazing recipe for poached eggs over rice)

  2. Quiche
    Flan
    Frittatas
    Deviled Eggs
    French Toast
    Eggs in a Basket (Fried egg in a piece of bread)

    Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll be yummy with the farm-fresh eggs! YUM!

  3. Hooray for fresh eggs! My husband gives our friends’ child piano lessons in exchange for fresh eggs and chickens from their farm. Not only do they taste better, but we get to see for ourselves that the chickens live very chickeny (that’s a word, right) lives happily roaming and pecking all over the farm.

    The yolks are so firm and fatty that they make for a really rich wonderful souffle.

  4. When I was little my family used to do this all the time from a neighboring farm. We even got to pick the eggs (chickens are rather nasty is mostly what I remember about that portion). The eggs were excellent.
    I would have to recommend quiche and custard pies as they were always better with fresh eggs. I also recall that meringue was better too so get out the recipe for meringue cookies and pies too! Delicious!

  5. Believe it or not yes! Right here in Brooklyn! My neighbor just two blocks away sells eggs from her chickens in her back yard. It doesn’t get more local than that! There really is something special about fresh eggs. A few weeks ago two dozen of these eggs were auctioned off at our school auction for more than $200!

  6. I often toss eggs in stir fries or on top of pizza to add some extra protein – a good idea if you have a surfeit of eggs! And it’s absolutely true – farm fresh eggs (and meat, and veggies, and herbs, and milk, and cheese) all taste much better than the kind you buy at the store here in the US! And most of them are more healthy for you because they’re raised better. :) I’m getting some farm-made bacon from my food co-op today and it’s going to be SO DELICIOUS!

  7. We get eggs from a woman in the canyon. The chickens run free and the yolks are dark orange. My favorite is crustless quiche. 5 eggs in a blender with 1/4 cup cream poured over leftover vegetables (or green chilies) and cheese. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Yummy hot or cold.

  8. You live in some kind of fairy tale world! Your pictures always make me so jealous!

    You could make your own hollandaise sauce with some of the eggs. It would be good over asparagus with a poached egg for dinner. Or you could make a quick hash with bits of onion, bacon, potato, asparagus (can you tell I have asparagus on the brain lately now that it’s in season?), and then put a fried egg on top.

    Or, Ina Garten’s baked eggs are amaaaaaazing. It’s fun for kids too, you bake them in individual ramekins and then cut pieces of toast into little strips to dip and scoop up the eggs with. Delicious. Here’s the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/herbed-baked-eggs-recipe2/index.html

  9. You could make…custard.

    Or, since it’s warming up you could make…custard ice cream.

    But, the quiche is something you must attempt in France. Unless your crust skillz are lacking. Then you could do a fritatta. Onion pie is divine, it’s just onion/garlic quiche.

  10. When I was a kid we lived in the country, just down the street from a farm. The farmer’s wife also happened to be our mail carrier, so when she brought our mail she’d also bring fresh eggs and milk.We also kept our own chickens and ducks sometimes, but never got many eggs from them- they were more like pets for us.

  11. I haven’t tried it yet, but I saw a recipe online for an egg curry that sounded amazing. Unfortunately I don’t know what I did with it, but I’ll bet googling egg curry would bring up some interesting (and different) foods. Personally I’m also a fan of simple fresh hard boiled eggs (still hot and not QUITE hard). Runny eggs with bacon and fried tomatoes… runny egg on a hamburger…

    I do love eggs. :)

    Out of curiosity… why are you using a basket with no handle? Does that lower the temptation to swing the basket (and break the eggs)? It just seems like it would be harder to carry. Maybe a basket with two little handles on the sides, so at least there’s something easy to hang on to? My hands are aching just looking at that photo and thinking of walking past cow pastures with 4 dozen eggs!

  12. I fell in love with these little chicks this week at the farm store here and briefly contemplated having chickens.

    How about souffles? There are healthy and decadent options for those. I just realized a year ago how simple they are to make really. And when in France… Crepes use them too and are also nice for that healthy or decadent thing. They even freeze well, though I know that is kind of an anathema across the pond.

    Asparagi all’ouvo is also really, really pretty and delicious in spring.

    Enjoy!

  13. Oh this is so funny… I am just writing a blog post about chicken coops, backyard chickens, and making an Oeuf Cocotte recipe. Oeufs Cocotte must be the simplest egg dish around, but it’s delicious and healthy. I should have a recipe up for it by tomorrow.

    Nothing beats farm fresh eggs…

  14. I get jealous every time I see your pictures :(

    That said, eggs are so versatile! For a quick snack, eggs scrambled with garlic, onions, tomatoes and cheese (gruyere!). Top on toasted bread = perfect!

  15. You should look into purchasing the cookbook Eggs by Michel Roux. It is a beautiful book to look at and every recipe I have tried has been delicious. It will make you want to cook eggs for every meal. I really love that the recipes make you think beyond omelets and poached eggs. Have fun!

  16. Growing up, egg collecting was a special camping-related activity. I so wish we had the space here to keep chickens, but I’m reduce to stockpiling at our monthly farmers’ market. My kids love to pick out the “special breed” eggs in blue, speckled, and (exotic for England) white!

  17. Love the photos! Such beautyful haziness in them…. :)
    We also buy from a lokal farm and I always have (and use) lots of eggs. I like to bake cakes, meringue, macaroons and make my own yummy vanillacustard, and also aioli, quiches, crepes, waffles… so good….
    Wish you and yours a wonderful day.

  18. We are fortunate to have 7 hens. And the eggs are AMAZING! We wanted to taste test the different sort of eggs: battery, organic from Costco and our own. Of course our own won! But I was surprised that the battery eggs and the Costco eggs didn’t taste much different. Hope you enjoy you neighbor’s eggs!

  19. My parents have chickens on their farm, and we get our eggs from them. Some of our friends also purchase eggs from my parents, and we’re told that they’re the best eggs they’ve ever tasted. We simply couldn’t go back to store-bought eggs, even if we couldn’t get the eggs for free from my family.

  20. It looks like a few folks have mentioned quiche already, and I’d like to add that we eat a lot of quiche here and only recently started making it crustless, which I like so much better. Just butter your baking dish and make your batter ad bake as per usual.

    And since you’re in France and ESPECIALLY since Cherry season will be arriving shortly, try cherry clafoutis. It’s a dessert made in a quiche pan that straddles the line between custard and pancake. It’s incredibly easy to make, not too sweet, and so very yummy.

  21. We get fresh eggs from my sister-in-law. Right now it’s tomato season in Florida so we are cooking lots of things with both of these ingredients!! We just got 25 pounds of tomatoes out of the field for $1.00!

    We love poached eggs on toast (with a thin tomato slice) for breakfast. Also, baked eggs or soft-boiled eggs with toast “soldiers” are good. The kids like to take their toast soldiers (thin strips of toast) and dip them into the yolk. Fritattas, quiches, and also that crazy French way of putting fried eggs on top of everything (sandwiches, pizza, pasta).

    My kids also like to have plain ol’ boiled eggs as snacks to carry around.

  22. We buy eggs from my mother’s co-worker. My daughter now refuses to eat any eggs from the grocery store because they are too ‘pasty’ in color and they don’t taste like anything.

  23. Oh, fresh eggs are SO much better than supermarket. I hadn’t experienced the difference until we moved to Italy, and now I get our eggs from an chicken farm (we live in the center, so we sadly cannot call them our neighbors, but it’s still lovely and only a 10-minute drive). I was at first freaked out by the reddish-orange yolks, but after I found out that means much greater nutritional value, I can no longer eat eggs with pale yellow yolks. A couple of Italian specialities enhanced by fresh eggs? Tiramisu (the yolks aren’t cooked, so knowing that they’re fresh is incredibly important; just wash the eggs before cracking them) and freshly made pasta. Of course, a fresh egg over-medium with a slice of toast is heaven to all of us as well.

  24. Fried Egg Sandwiches (excellent on baguette with ham and fired onions)
    Tortilla Espanol (sauteed cubed potatoes with beaten eggs and any veggies if you want, panfried)
    Floating island, Soft meringue in a fruit puree or sauce ingles
    Banana French Toast (ripe banana, eggs and milk mixed in blender) you can bake it or pan fry

  25. Toss fresh arugula in olive oil, sprinkle with coarse sea salt & pepper, top with fresh poached eggs. Yum. Or try hard boiled egg & cucumber & watercress sandwiches. I can’t resist a deviled egg either… Or breakfast burritos with eggs, beans, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and cheese on tortilla. Mmmm or a veggie fritata with queso fresco. Oh now i’m hungry.

  26. two euros per dozen is an amazing price. local organic eggs at my farmers market are close to $6/dozen. I used to buy them, but its out of my price range

  27. Yes, fresh eggs absolutely taste better! We get them from our farmer’s market. I’ve noticed that the yolks are a deeper orange and they sit up a little higher. I second the suggestion of putting them on pizza. We had a pizza in Rome with hard-boiled eggs, basil, and ham and it was amazing! We’ve been trying to copy it, as much as one can without being in Rome, ever since. If you don’t have basil, arugula is nice too.

  28. Mt grandparents were farmers in Serbia. I well remember the eggs we ate during my summer vacations.

    I grew up, moved to the US with my parents, got married, had kids and didn’t taste those eggs for many years. Then my mother got sick with Alzheimer’s disease and I promised to take her to Serbia one last time.

    When we got to my grandparent’s old house (they had pased by now) my aunt made a simple omelet for dinner. It seemed to me the most delirious thing I had ever eaten. The color of the egg yolk was intense golden, the flavor fresh and delightful. I still remember how they tasted!

  29. We have laying hens and we love the eggs.
    How about making a homemade angel food cake with the whites and homemade noodles with the yolks. Yum!

  30. When I lived in Oregon, we would buy fresh brown eggs from a neighbor close by. They were the most delicious eggs we’ve ever had! I wish we could find someone near us now that we could buy from.

  31. i’ve never personally bought from a neighbor, but i’d love to buy eggs that aren’t white. where we lived before now, the store had many options of “free range”, “organic” etc, and i’ve noticed a difference. the biggest difference i saw this Easter is the egg yolks are so pale yellow. it has to be a diluted (ha!) egg. :)
    three cheers for cool neighbors!

  32. Have I told you how happy your Paris posts make me? I might have but here I go again: They make me INCREDIBLY happy. Au Revoir

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