I buy free range eggs at the farmers’ market. A box of 12 tends to have a mix of browns, whites, and pale greens, and they’re all different sizes.
This is probably a cultural difference between Europe and the US. Here in America, the vast majority of eggs for sale are from factory farms, and fall into the categories I listed. Finding free-range, cage-free, organic or other niche varieties is hit or miss in supermarkets, and if they have them, the selection is limited. I was aiming this poll at the most common varieties of eggs sold in the US.
I voted ‘other’ because I often get eggs from a local lady and they are usually small and multi-colored- every color from white to green to brown to spotted. I don’t ‘shop’ her eggs. I just take what she offers me.
If I buy at the store, I look for largest, brown, special (free range, organic, omega-3 or whatever), and best priced, in that order.
Free range is difficult to find, but is cage-free? I can’t remember the last supermarket I’ve been to that didn’t have cage-free eggs. Granted, I live in a big city, so that may have something to do with it.
Cage free eggs represent just 6% of the market.
I would have guessed a bit higher, like 15% myself. Still, every supermarket I go to has them.
Thanks for the clarification. I naively thought that the US, where space is cheaper then in the Netherlands, would have a larger production of free range eggs.
I dug up some numbers on egg production in the Netherlands, including export.
caged farming 58 % 5400 million eggs a year
non-caged 24 % 2244 million
free range 15 % 1447 million
organic 2 % 112 million
So are free-range eggs typically sold at Dutch supermarkets, or do you have to go to a smaller kind of market to get them? I don’t think I’ve ever seen free-range eggs at supermarkets here in the US (not even Whole Foods). The only place I know I can get them is at a local farmers market.
Interesting. They’re at every supermarket here- as sanvito mentioned, one major chain only sells free-range. Some restaurants guarantee that they use free range eggs too - even mcdonald’s.
Large since that’s what recipes tend to call for, white because that’s most common and least expensive in my area. I see no need to pay more for a very basic staple good.
We have more space than the Netherlands, true. We also have far more predators - and pretty much everything likes the taste of chicken. So keeping free-range chickens here can be quite problematic.
Wow, my deadbeat brother-in-law really gets around! I had no idea he was doing this at other people’s family gatherings, too.
I try to get “cage-free” or “free-range” eggs, although that may just mean the chickens are squeezed together in a big barn rather than being squeezed separately into little cages. I try to stick to brands whose suppliers I know something about, but that’s not always possible. And I’m impossibly jealous of those of you who are getting farm eggs for $2 or $2.50 a dozen - eggs from truly free-range, non-factory-farmed chickens around here run anywhere from $4.50 to $5.99 a dozen. I’m not that dedicated to the cause, I must say.
As for size and color, I get large or extra-large eggs because that’s the size they have to be for baking at this altitude. I don’t care whether they’re brown or white, although I used to love the various pastel colors we got from our organic farm co-op back before they decided that keeping chickens for eggs wasn’t really cost-effective.
Extra Large (or Jumbo), brown, organic.
I love eggs. I’ll have the for dinner sometimes.
Hey, when you’re a deadbeat, you gotta mooch wherever you can so that no one group gets too fed up with you. He was working with flatlined for a while, too.
Really, though, I use medium eggs for deviled eggs because I think that they just make a neater size, though the cost savings is nice as well.
I’m not sure that’s the reason - do you really have more chicken predators per square mile, and are they more difficult to keep out than foxes, which are very clever and quite small? The hens are brought in at night anyway.
I eat my own free range chicken eggs, but I am posting here to say that when you buy “free range” eggs in the US, you are not buying eggs from hens which frolic all day in sunny pastures. From wikipedia:
“In the United States, USDA free range regulations apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been allowed access to the outside.The USDA regulations do not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside.”
Generally this means they don’t live out their very short lives in a cage barely big enough to turn around in, they instead are loose inside a very crowded barn or yard. They are fed pesticide-laced gmo feed and are fed antibiotics just like the cage hens.
Certified Organic is the top label for eggs; no pesticides and gmo and antibiotics, are the major differences between them and free range. But even these eggs are nothing at all like those of homestead hens.
I can’t really tell the difference, tastewise, between home-grown and well-grown commercial broccoli or oranges (though I buy organic for its invisible-to-me benefits to my body and to the land), but with eggs, it is incredibly obvious. Ditto milk products and meats. They are like different foods entirely.
Beluga.
Which is why it is important to know who your supplier is. Some people have taken to saying “pastured” chicken instead of free-range. Cage-free is another term that can be misleading.
Happily, I know my farm market supplier puts his chicken in pastures in rota with his other animals. The bulk egg supplier at the farm market has a good reputation too but I have not visited his farm yet.
Get ours from our farmshare. Had to vote other/other since the eggs come in various sizes and colors. On average they are medium sized and tan.
Cheapest white large eggs I can find. I buy 6 or 12 eggs every 2 - 3 weeks when the kids come over, so I can make French toast. I give away the rest, or make a scrambled egg sandwich, or just let them go bad. I doubt my sporadic egg-buying will have a significant effect on the market, and I’m cheap.