Leslie Halleck is a horticulturist and general manager at North Haven Gardens in Dallas who blogs at growLively.  Today she comments on the difference between grocery store eggs and the eggs from her backyard chickens:

I’m often asked if there is any difference between my fresh backyard eggs and eggs purchased at the grocery store (from mass production facilities). My answer is always “YES!!” Fresh eggs from hens that are raised with with access to the outdoors, organic feed, fresh greens, insects, sunlight and low population pressure are healthier for you. They have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, beta carotene and have a denser texture than mass production eggs. Here is a photo of an egg from one of my Ameraucanas and an organic free-range egg from the grocery store. I think you can tell which one is the yard egg!

I’ll say:

Ameraucanas are beautiful chickens with feathery “sideburns,” and they lay eggs that often turn out with blue or greenish shells.  Someday I’d like to have some myself.  Leslie has remarked before that the eggs from her hens constitute the only animal protein she eats.  I think I’d like to get to that point someday, too– with my own chickens of course.  Apparently Joel Salatin has a very easy time marketing his pastured eggs to chefs in the area of Charlottesville, Virginia because all it takes to convince them is to crack one egg and pass the yolk back and forth from one hand to the other, demonstrating its solidity or “muscle tone” as he calls it.