My eggs taste like garlic.
And not just any garlic.
Garlic that has passed through a chicken’s system and ended up in an egg.
How’s that for flavour?
If you read this post, then you know about my quest for natural herbal preventatives. I have used conventional medicines on my flock and herd. I believe they can be helpful, but they have been way to overused and simply don’t always work anymore. I’m a bit more naturally focused and this includes my livestock approach.
This also includes feeding my hens garlic and eating the garlic eggs. Because what that hen eats, I eat. And it is not always as obvious as garlic. That GMO soy in the lay mash that I buy does not make the eggs taste like the poison that they actually are. The bright orange yolks fool me into believing that the eggs are the healthiest man can get. But they aren’t.
They are better than store bought eggs from a factory farm. My chickens know sun and love, and grass between their toes. They know worms, and the manure pile, and baby toads. They also know cold nights, and harsh weather. They know snow, and rain, and scratching through goat bedding hoping to find just one little hay seed that may have fallen onto the floor. They’re stronger and healthier from all of this.
But they aren’t perfect.
So on a quest to make the most delicious eggs possible have I stopped with the garlic?
No.
Because they need it right now. Their little eyes light up when they see me coming with their little dish in hand. They all run and greet me at the gate. Some of them even jump up and down desperately wanting to get to fill their little beaks with the wonderful God given, health assuring garlic. Some eat a lot. Some eat only a little. They know how much they need, and once their bodies have built up enough in their system the garlic charade will slow down.
And as for the commercial feed – when summer comes again there will be an abundance of worms, and toads, and weeds to eat and the chicken feeder will hang untouched for days at a time. It is not a perfect system, but it is what we have for now.
This is home grown food. This is food with a story, and I will gladly take part in every bit of it. Even if it tastes like garlic…that has gone through a chicken.
