All things being equal, it’s a great idea to buy your eggs locally. However, from what I’ve seen after visiting dozens of egg farms in the past 2 years, all things are not equal, nor are they what they seem.

Vital Farms Pasture Raised Eggs are from hens that are raised outdoors, on fresh native grasses that are Certified Organic. Our hens (also certified organic) are rotated routinely onto fresh pasture. They don’t touch a previously utilized area for at least 60 days (often a year or more), allowing the pathogens from their manure to run their life cycles, die off and turn into great natural fertilizer. Our birds’ diets are also supplemented with a USDA Certified Organic lay ration (hens need a certain amount of seeds and grain to lay about an egg a day). Our farms are all Certified Humane by Humane Farm Animal Care. We choose our family farms based upon many things, including their willingness to love and care for the ladies who will lay our eggs. In addition, we meet regularly with our family farms to review our standards and work on ideas to improve the lifestyle of our hens and the quality and flavor of our eggs.

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While there are many small local farms that produce eggs that I’d eat, many more do not. Here’s what I need to see before I purchase and eat eggs from the farm down the road:

1. Certified Organic. Fact: It only costs $400 to get certified organic. Many local farmers tell us that they are “organic” but can’t afford the certification. Since being certified organic improves the sale price of their product and the value of the food they produce, I have to wonder if there is some other reason why they don’t make the effort and spend the minimal cost to get certified. If they are free ranging their birds, but feeding them non-organic feed, you could be eating eggs from hens fed blood, feather and bone meal, pesticide and herbicide laced- GMO corn and soy and other nasty stuff, all of which makes its way into your body after it passes through the hen’s. Today’s egg is made up mostly of what the hen ate yesterday.

2. Humanely Raised: I want to know that the birds are living outdoors (not indoors with “outdoor access”). I also want to know that the farmer rotates his flocks onto fresh pasture on a regular basis. Does he/she follow humane standards for their birds? Are they protected from predators, allowed to dust bathe, given proper roosting space, enough nesting boxes, summer shade and water access? Are they over or under fed? Too much grain can lead to overlarge eggs which can lead to physical problems for the layer. I have seen this on many small farms, where a farmer thinks he is being good to the birds by giving them all the feed they want. Too little feed and the girls stop laying.

3. Be Honest: It’s simply not possible to produce pasture raised eggs during the winter in many parts of the country. In states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, there is only green pasture a few months per year. If you want pasture raised eggs during the winter, you will need to get them from a farm in the South where there is green pasture year ‘round. A farm that claims that their eggs are pasture raised when the birds are indoors in barns or warehouses is not being truthful to his/her customer.

Finally, it’s difficult to compare the cost and carbon footprint of shipping a carton of eggs 1,000 miles in a truck with 25,000 other dozens vs. the cost of driving to a local farm to pick up 1-2 items. In this example, we don’t know how far the local farm is, how good your gas mileage is and how many items among which to divide the fuel cost. We do know the amount of fuel required to ship a carton of eggs on a full, refrigerated semi-truck: It’s 6/10 of one ounce of diesel, or 1/213 of a gallon – basically several large drops. My bet is that I’d use more just starting my car to drive to the farm down the road.

That being said, Vital Farms has grown to 12 family farms in states throughout the South including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and now Georgia. Soon we will also begin production on a farm in California. We are striving to bring our eggs closer to you so that you don’t have to drive all the way to Austin for a great breakfast.

The three major ingredients needed to make macarons are: ground almonds, powered sugar and egg whites. We added a little Matcha Green Tea powder to give it a special flavor, but there are innumerable flavors of macaron: raspberry, chocolate, pistachio, caramel, sesame, rose-water, etc. One of our very favorite places to eat macarons in Austin, Texas is at La Boîte Café. The pastry chef, Barrie Cullinan, who makes their macarons was also recently featured in Bon Appetit magazine as having one of the top 10 Best Bakeries in America. Our recipe is from the book (above), i love macarons by Hisako Ogita.

To make matcha green tea macaron batter  you will need:

1 strainer for sifting flour

baking mats or parchment paper

1 measuring cup

1 mixing bowl

1 spatula

1 hand mixer

1 pastry bag with a 1 cm metal tip

2/3 c. ground almonds

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

3 large Vital Farms egg white, at room temperature

5 Tbls. granulated sugar

1 Tsp. vanilla extract, or seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean

1 Tsp. Matcha green tea powder

2 baking sheets

1. First, cut a sheet of parchment paper to fit your top baking sheet. Draw 1.5 in. circles on the paper, spacing them at least 1/2 inch apart. This pattern will be your guide for squeezing out the macaron batter.

2. Sift your mixture of ground almonds and powdered sugar through your strainer twice. Set aside.

3. In a stainless-steel mixing bowl, beat your egg whites on high speed until they are foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar to the egg whites. Add vanilla and stir lightly.

4. When the meringue is stiff, firm and has a glossy texture, it is done.

5. Add half of the sifted flour mixture from step 2. Stir it with your spatula, scooping it from the bottom of the bowl. Add the rest of the flour and mix it in a circular motion.

6. The next step is called “Macaronnage”. Press the batter against the bowl’s sides. Scoop the mixture from the bottom and turn the batter upside down. Repeat this process 15 times. When the batter become nicely firm and drips slowly from the spatula, the mixture is done.

7. Attach your metal tip to the pastry bag. Then, place the bag, tip down, inside the measuring cup and pour the batter made in step 6 into the bag.

8. Place the sheet used in step 1 on your baking sheet and squeeze batter into the center of your circles. Make them small, since the batter spreads a little after being squeezed.

9. Rap the baking sheet firmly against the corner of the counter. This helps macarons hold their shape and form the little “foot” on the bottom of the cookie. Then, dry the batter circles at room temperature for 15 minutes uncovered. The batter is settled when no tips can be seen in the circles.

10. Place your oven rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat to 375 degrees F. Place your baking sheet with batter on top of another sheet and bake for 15 to 18 minutes until slightly crisp and cracked on top. When they are cooked, remove the macarons and let cool completely.

To make butter cream filling  you will need:

7 Tbls. unsalted butter

3 Tbls. water

3 Tbls. sugar

1 Vital Farms egg

a few drops vanilla extract

1. Cut butter into pieces and place them in a heat resistant bowl. Heat in the microwave for 5 seconds. Stir the soft butter with a spatula until it becomes smooth and creamy like mayonnaise.

2. Put water and sugar in a heat-resistant container and stir well. Heat this mixture in the microwave for 2 minutes. Wear oven mitts when removing the cup from the microwave.

3. Break an egg into your mixing bowl and beat it lightly with the hand mixer. Pour the syrup into the mixture like a thread, beating on high speed. Continue beating until the bottom of the bowl is no longer hot and the mixture becomes white and thick. Stir a drop of two of vanilla extract into the mixture while mixing.

4. Add the butter to the mixture, beating on medium speed, little by little, until the butter is well mixed and the cream is done.

5. Place the butter cream in the pastry bag and squeeze a little onto the flat side of half of your cookies. Gently press the top puff into place so that the cream doesn’t come out.

Bon appetit!

“Pad Thai is a famous dish in the U.S. and around the world except Thailand. There is nothing wrong with it. I love it and Thai people love it. It’s just not one of the dishes you see everywhere like you would in the US. It’s almost considered a specialty, you have to hunt for it and you have to know where to go to get it. Here is my theory why it is so popular everywhere. Thai cooking is a cooking of balance. There are five flavors present in Thai cuisine: spicy, sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Pad Thai is a great example of Thai food that has all the five flavors. So, whatever flavor you like, Pad Thai is likely to satisfy your palate.” – Jam Sanitchat

Ingredients

2 handfuls of dried thin rice stick (about half a pack of 16 oz dry medium size rice stick noodles)
2 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoon tamarind water (see notes below)
2 tablespoons fish sauce (substitute with soy sauce and soy bean paste for the same amount for vegetarian)
2 small bunch Chinese chives/leeks (you can substitute green onions but it won’t taste the same but it will give a little color to your Pad Thai)
2 teaspoon oil
1 red shallot, minced
2 Vital Farms eggs!
4 oz extra firm tofu, cut into small cubes and deep fry (We drained and sliced the tofu, then covered it in a kitchen towel and set some canned food on top. This helps remove some water to help in the frying process).
4 shrimp, peeled and deveined (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of salted radish, chopped (this is salted daikon, the white raddish. You can skip it if you can’t find it. It usually comes in a plastic bag whole or in a tub already minced)
pinch of roasted Thai chili flakes (see notes below) or substitute red pepper flakes. It won’t be as spicy but will work fine.
2 handfuls of bean sprouts
2 tablespoons of crushed roasted peanuts
lime wedges

Soak noodles in tap water for about an hour until soft. To check the noodles if they are ready, bend a noodle and if it breaks without any force, it’s ready. If not, you have to soak a little longer. Mix palm sugar, white sugar, tamarind water and fish sauce and simmer until dissolved. Chopped Chinese chives into small lengths about 2 inches.

Heat a wok or big pot (Dutch Oven is my favorite, or a big saute pan will do) over medium heat until very hot, add oil and wait until the oil is hot and fry shallots until fragrant and colored. Crack in eggs and scramble. Mix in tofu (and shrimp if using), chili flakes and radish. Stir fry until the tofu is thoroughly heated up and then add noodles. Stir-fry for a while until the noodle is softer and change color. Add the prepared sauce and a pinch of chili flakes. Stir for a few moments. Finally, add most of the bean sprouts and Chinese chives and cook for another 30 seconds. The noodles should be a little sweet, sour and salty.

When served, top the noodles with crushed peanut, fresh Chinese chives, bean sprouts, a wedge or two of lime and chili flakes(if want it a little hotter).

Over the subsequent 6 months, the NOSB put forth their actual recommendations, which included a requirement that all organic “farms” provide hens with a minimum of 2 square feet per bird outside. I found this interesting, since our birds consume 20 square feet of pasture, PER WEEK!

Below, please see our recommendations to the NOSB.

1. At Vital Farms we recommend a stocking density of 100 birds per acre, which amounts to 430 sq ft. per

Hens on pasture consume grass in just days (left), so they must be moved frequently to fresh grass (right)

bird. The NOSB’s Livestock Committee’s recommendation is for 2 sq ft per bird, outdoors.

Nevertheless, the factory farms that make up the majority of organic egg production in the US fought this requirement. They brought with them their lobby groups and paid scientists. They claimed that hens don’t belong outside; that if wild birds mingled with hens, the hens could get avian flu, thus they needed to be crowded into barns “for their own safety”.

While outdoors, hens often interact with wild birds, as nature intended. It is neither natural nor necessary to separate the two, especially if the hens are not living a stressed lifestyle from overcrowded factory barn conditions. Treating birds with respect costs more than jamming them into cages or warehouses. Thus, our eggs sell for a premium price at Whole Foods and other stores around the country.

2. We implore the board to set a requirement for at least equal spacing outdoors and indoors for all organically certified laying hens.

3. We also recommend that the use of any confined cages, including so-called “aviary” devices, should be forbidden by the NOSB if the birds are so confined. Such devices are nothing more than glorified cages designed to maximize profits to the mega-egg producers seeking the higher profits associated with organic production.

4. To help eliminate fraud, the NOSB should enact an egg-testing program that would determine if a producer is in fact producing and selling an organic egg vs. a mislabeled one. Such a program could eliminate fraudulently sold eggs from entering the market and could lead to legal actions against any producer who does so.

5. Additionally, allowing organic producers to use phraseology like “free roaming” or “free range” to describe birds in warehouse settings with little or no access to pasture should be prohibited. The organic consumer expects to be told the truth. Any lies and/or misleading statements on labeling or hidden in the name itself undermine the consumers’ confidence in organic products and hurts us all.

Your voice is needed in this battle. If you’d like to add your comments, email: nosb@ams.usda.gov, to speak out in support of  animal welfare standards for laying hens.