Look what the Easter bunny left us!
It’s Easter and Pikelet & Lollo have eggs on their minds. Not the chocolate variety but the regular hen laid sort. Just take a gander at these farm fresh beauties from Frognot Farms. The darling dozen come in different sizes and in sweet hues of pale green, blue, brown, spotty and crisp white (look at my header!). The children are so charmed by their appearance, they cannot wait to eat them. Looks like we’ll be having Easter eggs all year long!
If you fancy an eggscellent adventure, take a farm tour at Frognot Farms in Blue Ridge Texas. They have an open door policy (just call ahead so they can meet you at the gate) and are completely transparent about their farm operations. If you’ve watched Food Inc. you’ll know how important it is to know where we’re getting our food and what we are feeding our kids. Their website states “Our goal at Frognot Farms is to provide a natural and low-stress environment for our animals…and for us, too. The animals are rotated on fresh pasture to manage the grass, weeds, and animals without the need for pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, or antibiotics.” If you can’t make it up there for a tour, check out their website for locations they sell at.
Our kids like yolks and we go to Grays, at the Dallas Farmer’s Market who sells double yolked eggs. They come in white and are much bigger than most supermarket eggs. The vendor says the eggs are laid by free range Rhode Island Red chickens and the double yolks are a naturally occurring phenomenon. We’ve been buying them for years and though not every egg is double yolked, a majority of them are. You won’t find eggs as special as Frognotfarms or double yolked eggs in larger retailers as the inconsistencies will not pass regulations.
From a medical perspective, Dr Julie Lin, MD, FAAP and Dallas mother of two IttyBitty egg eaters, Maya (4 years) and Marcus (2 years) says that “Not only are eggs an excellent source of protein, but they are also nutrient dense, packed with a wide range of valuable vitamins and minerals, while being relatively low-calorie. I don’t think there’s really a number out there for how many eggs they should have per week. I think that would depend on each child, taking into account his/her medical, family, and dietary histories”.
And are two yolks better than one? Dr Lin says, “The egg yolk contains most of the vitamin/minerals and about half of the protein. Also, the egg white is usually the culprit when it comes to food allergies. So if you wanted to limit the diet to just the yolk, two is better than one”.
And speaking of double yolked check out the Breakfast pizza or Eggs in Green Olive and Caponata brunch recipes done by my favorite pair of twins, Anna Berman of Snacking in the Kitchen and Olga Berman from Mango Tomato. This post is dedicated to you.
Note: Crack the code on Egg Terminology – Ever wondered what ‘organic, farm fresh, pastured, humane certification etc’ really means? The Sweet Beet tells all.
Till our next Happy Meal!
