Everyone wants to feed their family with good food. The fact is that knowing the sources of our food and the conditions in which it is grown or raised has a direct correlation on our health. Growing your own is always the best but is not always practical. That is when it becomes imperative that we understand the different labels so that we know what we are paying for.
Cage-Free: This might sound good but it doesn’t mean they’re clucking around in the fresh air and sunshine. Cage-free chickens can be kept indoors, often in crowded conditions.
Farm Fresh: Another misleading marketing term. All eggs come from “farms,” even if the farm is a big building where chickens are packed into cages, so this labeling claim has no value at all.
Free Range: These are better because the birds aren’t kept in cages and they do have outdoor access, but in some cases only as much as 2 square feet of pasture per bird.
Pasture raised: This label means that each gets a minimum of 108 square feet of pasture for themselves. In our case at Sister Grove Farm, they literally have acres and acres upon which they can roam with ample space to perform natural behaviors, such as pecking for seeds and bugs.
Benefits of pasture raised eggs include:
3-6 times more vitamin D, which helps build strong bones
significantly higher levels of omega 3 fatty acids
about a third less cholesterol than conventional eggs
much less chance of food borne illness since the birds are much cleaner and healthier
and they taste better!
Our eggs are available at $6/dozen through Zelle at events@sistergrovefarm.com. Email, Text (903-815-3937), or message first to confirm availability. Cash sales are $7.50/dozen.
