Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Bev and anyone else with eggs to sell --
> How do you recommend going about selling and advertising that you have some
> to sell with all the concern about salmonella, etc? Do you use your own
> flats or cartons to sell them in or do you re-cycle ones people save for
> you from the store?

There is always some concern, there is for everyone even the commercial 
producers.

Commercial eggs are produced in absolutely filthy conditions.  Most state 
laws require the eggs to be washed and sterilized using bleach.  This removes 
the 
natural mucilege coating on the egg and allows bacteria to enter through the 
shell.  That's why they have to be chilled.

We sell eggs and have done so for many years (it's legal in this state).  
Most of the eggs are clean, but if one is occasionally soiled, it gets gently 
scrubbed with a dry scrubbing pad which removes almost all of it.  Because 
the 
eggs retain their natural shield against bacteria, we've never had a bad egg 
nor 
the complaints of one.

And here's the thing:  we do not refrigerate eggs.  A natrual unadulterated 
egg will keep at room temperature for more than 30 days.  So eggs gathered on 
the farmstead and sold within one or two days are about as safe from 
bacterial 
invasion as you can get.

If you ask people to save egg cartons for you,  you will soon be buried under 
a mountain of them.