There is a lot of contradictory information going around about the nutritional content of eggs. How good are they really? How can you get the most nutrition from your eggs? Where should we purchase our eggs? Are farm fresh eggs really better for you?

These answers are really complex, but the main takeaway is that all eggs aren’t the same. Just like with us, the nutritional value of what a chicken consumes affects the nutritional value of it’s eggs. The higher nutritional content of a chicken’s diet, the higher nutritional content of the eggs.

Studies have been done comparing eggs from chickens fed primarily commercial chicken feed to eggs from pasture raised hens with access to grasses and insects showing an increase in Vitamin E, Omega-3 fatty acids, and possibly Vitamin A with the pasture raised eggs. However, as a consumer, the best way to tell the quality of your eggs is by the look and feel of them.

Here is a store bought egg and a farm egg side by side. Even though both eggs are white with he farm egg you can almost see the yolk through it. Also when you break them the shell of the farm egg is much thicker and takes a lot more force to break through. The biggest difference between the two, however, is the actual look and texture of the egg itself.

Here is a picture of a store bought egg:

And here is a picture of a store bought egg and a pasture raised egg from our farm:

Do you see the difference? While the biggest difference is the yolk, the farm raised is a deep orange, almost a red color and is much firmer and holds it’s shape better than the store bought egg, there is also a huge difference in the white as well. The white of the egg in the store bought is very clear and liquidy. The pasture raised egg has a milky white with almost a plasma consistency instead of a liquid.

Also, spoiler alert, they taste much better too. So the next time you are debating spending the extra money with your local farmer, ask how they raise their chickens, and if they get a healthy diet of foraging for bugs spend that extra money. You wont regret it!

EDIT: I have discovered, since publishing this post on patreon, that the egg I was comparing from our farm was a duck egg instead of a chicken egg. However, the chicken eggs we gather here at the farm are very similar to the duck egg except for 2 things

1. The shell of the duck egg is much harder than that of our chickens, although honestly not by much.
2. The chicken eggs do not have the cloudy whites that the duck eggs do. They are just as orange though.

Sorry if I have caused some confusion!!

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