Homestead Hack #3: Steam Your Eggs!

A couple of weeks back, I mentioned labeling your eggs as they go into the carton. This hack is another egg-tip for you chicken minded – or other avian friendly – folk. In a blind taste test, I have zero idea as to the differences between a farm fresh egg and a store bought one. To me, they all taste the same. When I can tell the difference is when they’re hard boiled. I can’t actually taste the difference, but when it comes time to peel them, the distinction is clear: an older egg sloughs it’s shell easily and cleanly, a farm fresh egg is impossible to peel uniformly and half the egg white ends up still stuck to the shell. (If you’re curious as to why this happens, you can read about it on Popsugar.)

So what do you do when you want a hardboiled egg for a snack when you’re bucking logs? You could keep a carton of eggs you let “age” in the back of the fridge but that requires planning. The better answer: steam them. I’m not entirely sure where my wife read about it, but ifyou steam fresh eggs for 20-25 minutes, you’ll be able to peel them just like the well seasoned eggs you buy at the grocery store, but without all the planning! (And don’t forget to write a big old “HB” on them. No one wants to peel a non-hardboiled egg.)

Homestead Hack #2: Steal the Batteries!

Homestead Hack #1: Label Your Eggs!

If I had to guess, I’d imagine that the most common farm-type animal among homesteaders would have to be a chicken. More and more they can be found in urban settings and it seems that everyone knows at least one person with chickens, and with chickens come….eggs! Before long, you’ll realize you have too many chickens, but don’t have the heart to put them in the freezer and you’ll quickly find yourself inundated with eggs. I know we’ve had 4.5 dozen eggs in our fridge a few times in the summer months when laying is heavy. Unfortunately, (I found this out as a kid) when you start getting lots of eggs, there’s a chance one of those eggs might sit in the fridge for too long and you’ll only figure out it’s old when you go to crack it open – which is certainly less than enjoyable. You could label your cartons – as I know many people do – but then you end up with a multiple cartons that aren’t full. I don’t know about you, but there isn’t room in my fridge for half-empty egg cartons.

The solution: Label Your Eggs! At Good View Quarter before each egg gets it’s bath in the sink, but before it goes in the carton, it has it’s laid-on-date scrawled on top. All of our eggs have a date on them. It helps conserve space, and it helps let us know which eggs are freshest, and which ones might be best hard boiled. We like to use pencil. I’m sure ink from a pen would work fine, but pencil seems the safest choice than then say, Sharpie.

Label your eggs! It saves space and time, and gives you peace of mind!