Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Can Ya Tell??

Part, okay most, of the battle with moving around for us is finding our source for meat, eggs, milk, and produce since we want these to be organic, if possible, and farm fresh. Each place we have moved, we've connected with amazing people and families with hobby farms or bigger farms that have been kind enough to let us buy right off their farm.

In Virginia we have learned that selling raw milk (milk straight from the cow) is illegal and in order to get your hands on some of that extreme goodness you have to purchase part of a cow and therefore you have rights to some of the milk. (One day I'll tell you all the benefits of drinking raw milk and what the horrible pasteurized and homogenized milk does to your body since it's something we've research quite a bit, but for now I'll skip that part since it's late :)...but if you want you can check out mercola.com or westonaprice.org for some great resources on raw milk...)

Anyway, so we have yet to find a dairy farm period around here, as they are few and far between or anyone who has a cow that we can purchase, or some of it anyway, to get some milk.

BUT, we did find a farm just a few mins down the road that has grass fed beef and eggs that we were able to get a few days ago. We couldn't buy too much at a time since our storage facility (aka our tiny freezer) isn't that big. But I did want to show you something....

Take a look at this picture....



Can you tell which egg was from the farm and which eggs are from the store??? Amazing isn't it?? One of those eggs was from a completely free range chicken, eating all the bugs and grass that it wanted, out in the daylight and fresh air. You might think that the other eggs are the typical white eggs from a 'golden plump' type farm but they are from an organic brand, claiming to be 'free range'. So you see my friends, even 'organic free range' eggs from the grocery store is no substitute for the wonderful fresh farm egg.

Which egg do you think has more nutrients, minerals and benefical fats to it?? Pretty easy question if you asked me!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are sooooo correct! An officer I work with us he brings us eggs for $1.50 for a dozzen and fress honey! Good luck with finding a farmer! Gina

Unknown said...

I'm with ya Dawn!! I just showed the kids that the other day!! I had to buy eggs in town since our chickens seem to be "frozen shut" and there is NO comparison!! You know I'd send ya milk if I could!! (I'm sure that is illegal too!!!) :)
Ang

Bette said...

I do not disagree as I was raised on eggs from our own backyard chickens. That was years ago before Salmonella enteritidis migrated over to chickens -- probably from horses and rabbits.

Please don't be lulled into thinking that organic and local eggs are safer than the ones at the store. If you're feeding children, elderly, pregnant women or anyone with a compromised immune system, you still need to be careful of cross contamination and serving undercooked eggs.

Dawn said...

Thanks for your opinion, Bette, but I just want to say that nobody is "lulling" me to think that local is better than the stores, that is something that Ive come to know as fact with my own research, talking with lots of farmers, visiting big corporation farms, etc. Knowing where and from whom your food is coming from is huge.

If anyone is being lulled, it is people who think that the USDA, FDA, big food corps or the govt give a hoot about your health. Watch the movie Food Inc and you'll get a glimpse of what I'm talking about.

If you haven't, check out a huge golden plump or Tyson chicken type chicken farm and see how those chickens are treated, what they are eating, what conditions they live in, etc and then ask yourself where you'd rather eat chickens from or which ones would be better for your health...there or from a farm that you can visit, see the chickens roaming freely, and talk to the owner?

A place where they put hormones, antibiotics, steriods, and who knows what else into an animal all for the sake of a buck, or any reason, is not a place that I want to eat from, or expose my family to, period.