Fresh Farm Eggs

Having fresh yard eggs today almost seems a luxury.  I don't have any chickens but I know a guy...  Which sounds shady until you realize we're talking chicken eggs.  And they didn't fall off of the back of a truck anywhere.  Come on, they'd be cracked.

I've had the privilege of getting eggs from him three times now and they really are so much better than store bought eggs.  And, although you can keep them on the counter, putting them in the fridge won't hurt anything either.  We kinda like our counter space and they fit on top of the egg tray nicely.

One way to tell how fresh an egg really is, is when you crack it open.  The rounder the yolk the fresher the egg.  This roundness unfortunately can change from egg to egg so it isn't an exact science but if you've got a nice domed yolk coming out you know it's fresh.  On the other hand if it's looking a little flatter than it's siblings (these are eggs after all) then it doesn't necessarily mean it's old or not going to be as good.  It can also be a bit genetic and just happens to be a little flatter  yolk.  This may merely be a thinner membrane on the yolk which is then stretching and flattening out.

The way I've always been told to check to see if an egg is good or not is to float test it.  If you toss it in water and it bobs to the top then it is producing gas and may not be any good anymore.  This is actually not a test though of "can I eat this" but merely a tool to help estimate how old the egg is.  As far as I can find, there is no real test to see if an egg is safe to eat.  I've found ranges anywhere from 5 weeks to 3 months or longer.  The same for how long you can leave eggs out at room temperature, I've heard 2 weeks to a few months.  The way one person put it was, paraphrasing here, if it can take 2 weeks for the hen to finish laying eggs before she even sits on them and they hatch just fine in 90 degree weather, I'm sure they can last much longer on the counter inside. Which makes sense that a viable egg is edible before incubating.

The reality though, at least in our household, is that these eggs won't last that long to worry about.  They will get eaten in less than anyone's recommended time table no matter where we leave them.  Just don't leave them in the car.  They'd probably start cooking at that point.  It's getting warmer out there.