Food Finds - Down the Hatch

I remember the first time I had a real egg like it was five minutes ago. I was on a trip with my parents, who had rented an obnoxiously tiny apartment in Paris. Since the space had a small kitchenette, we’d go on frequent outings to the area’s farmers markets and food shops to stock the fridge. One day, we followed my father into a cheese shop where the employees wore white lab coats. Amidst the bounty of cheeses, my attention turned to a corner of the shop where older French women were clamoring for something that seemed valuable. After some gentle shoving and a few “excusez-mois,” I discovered the source of the fuss: a basket of eggs. Being your typical curious kid, I begged my father to buy me some. He obliged and the next morning I watched in giddy anticipation as my father cracked the eggs into the frying pan. They were orange! Nothing like the pale specimens I was accustomed to in Georgia. The taste? It was like sticky hot cream. Pure eggy heaven. I didn’t get another such taste outside of Europe until years later when I discovered local farms selling eggs in San Francisco. When I moved back here, I was limited to the occasional farmer selling eggs at a farmers market. But they’d go so fast (the early bird gets the eggs) and a reliable source was hard to find.

Imagine my delight when I found Manyfold Farm’s (www.manyfoldfarm.com) eggs at Bella Cucina on a random visit to do some gift shopping. Each of Manyfold’s pasture-raised eggs are small, but perfect. The eggs are what owner Rebecca Williams refers to on her blog (www.thedirtyway.com) as “pullet eggs, meaning that they are the eggs from immature, adolescent chickens. These eggs are of irregular, and often smaller in size, and have other irregularities, such as double yolks.” I’ve noted no such oddities since buying them. The yolks are tangerine orange. The taste? Just as creamy as those eggs I had in France so many years ago. Since these aren’t your basic factory-farm eggs, the color can range from pale brown to a speckled light blue. They are a beautiful, homegrown sight to behold.

Rebecca operates Manyfold Farm with her husband, Ross, in Chattahoochee Hill Country, which is about 50 minutes from Atlanta. The “wanna-be, gonna-be farmers” raise their chickens in a movable coop with indoor and outdoor access. The birds are fed a steady diet of grass, certified organic feed and sunshine. You can follow the Williams’ farming progress and highly intelligent farm-centric musings on their blog or Facebook page (www.facebook.com/manyfoldfarm).

Manyfold Farm’s eggs are available via the farm’s website as a full or half-share 10-week subscription program for $60 and $30, respectively, with pickup at Serenbe. The eggs are also available at Bella Cucina and select farmers markets such as East Atlanta Village Farmers Market.