Yesterday's omelet

Seriously, folks. Back to gardening.

This morning my long-suffering husband informed me that we had with real, local eggs for our Saturday omelet. (If you don't know why he's long-suffering, you haven't read this morning's post. It was supposed to be yesterday's post, but some cyberspace hiccup delayed it.)

In honor of the eggs, I went to the basement for fresh vegies. (Yes, basement. More on this soon.) There's not a lot to choose from at this season, but I did find enough fresh chard and carrots to do the trick. Along with a grating of jarlsburg cheese and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, they made a truly luscious omlete.

Of course, the eggs were much (much) better than even the cage-free ones we can get at the store. Whenever I can get real, local eggs from truly cage-free hens, I am astonished at the difference.

Color, for instance. The yolks in these were such a deep, rich yellow that they verged on orange.

And then there's integrity. The pale, wimpy yolks of commercial eggs barely withstand the shock of being poured into a bowl, but these fresh yolks stayed intact even after I'd started whipping them with a fork. I had to stab them to break them.

Once I had managed to break the yolks and beat the eggs, the mixture was far thicker than anything I've seen in months. I've pretty much stopped adding milk to omelets, because it makes them so watery. If I hadn't added milk to these, I think they'd have stayed in one place on the frying pan, like pancakes.

I am really wondering whether such different things could have the same nutritional value.

These lovely eggs were a gift from a colleague whose chicken house Steve had helped build a year or so ago. But not, apparently, a string-free gift.

“He's bribing me to help him build a green house,” Steve explained. “I figure I'll make all the mistakes on his before we build ours.”

I liked the sound of this; it suggests that he's thinking about helping to upgrade the greenhouse. It could use some upgrading. And if the bargain gets us beautiful eggs in the meantime, I'm all for it.