Chicken Eggs!

written by

posted on

April 28, 2026

By Chris Walker

Sunshine in a Nutshell - er, uh... Eggshell.

Does your workday start at the same time, every day, all year? What if you met with your teammates every two weeks and agreed that you had to bump up your start time by 15 minutes? This time of year - to make the most of the morning light - my fellow apprentices and I have this discussion on-the-regular!

Roosters have a reputation for recognizing daybreak, but the fact is they're up and crowing long before dawn. Joel will tell you that chickens are the first of the farm animals up and active in the morning; if we're going to be good stewards, we can't miss that first-light appointment! The broilers need their fresh patch of the pasture salad bar, the Eggmobile needs to be moved to just the right spot behind the cows to find the best bugs, and the Feathernet nest boxes have to be open for business!

Chickens are Supremely Sensitive to Sunlight

With a little rain after a dry start, spring is finally rolling along. Most of us are now rejoicing in longer days, the flush of grass, and the return of bugs and birdsong - but here on the farm, our first hint that days are getting longer comes in January! Immediately after the December winter solstice - the shortest day of the year - our relatively relaxed winter egg operation begins to wake up. The hens are still comfortable in our hoophouses, but within a month egg production will double. In another month, it will double again.

Just behind a hen's eye, where sunlight can reach it, is her pineal gland. Like ours, it helps to regulate her circadian rhythm - but in chickens, more daylight means more eggs. It's a seasonal cycle, and it means in the spring months we have all the eggs we can handle!

Paid Time Off

Industrial egg operations use artificial lighting to stimulate egg production year-round. Without bodily rest, in an unnatural environment, and out-of-sync with a varied and nutrient-dense spring diet, the eggs are thin and weak - and so are the hens! At Polyface, we never use artificial lights. Our egg supply shrinks in the fall, but our hens are free to molt and rest through the shorter winter days, and they get our best second-cutting hay and scratch grains in addition to their usual excellent non-GMO ration.

Exceptional Eggs

As soon as they can, our hens leave their protective winter hoop structures and hit the pasture, and it's a joy to be out here moving them each daybreak. Our mobile infrastructure leaves trails in the dewy grass and the chickens are eager to come along and snatch the critters we stir up. Expressing their "chicken-ness" on the full buffet of our spring pastures means scratching through cow pies, catching grasshoppers, and fighting over worms. Out here the ladies have nothing to do all day but be chickens; they're able to take full advantage of the sunlight and the salad bar and deliver us nests heaping with the best eggs a farm can make.

Customers from home cooks and bakers to high-end chefs praise properly pastured eggs for their firmness, richness, color, and flavor. From a nutritional standpoint, the differences are astounding. Nothing beats eggs from a happy hen.

What do I do with them all?!

There's so much more to a real farm-fresh egg than over-easy and toast, as lovely as that can be! Make sure to try the difference pastured eggs can make in all your recipes - the richness and structure really shine in sauces and baked goods! Hollandaise anyone?!

With baskets and baskets stacking up, we have found a few new ways to celebrate all this abundance. Here are a couple of my favorites; one is an interesting new twist on breakfast, and one elevates simple picnic fair into a real meal!

Sheet-pan Simple; Pasture Perfect. "Balsamic Brussels Sprout Breakfast"

I've been making this for years - it's one of my wife Sandy's favorite breakfasts! I know Brussels sprouts aren't usually in the breakfast rotation, but cleverly combined with our Polyface bacon (or bacon ends!) and a drizzle of local honey and balsamic vinegar, they make an easy but intriguing sheet-pan breakfast that you'll come back to again and again.

Balsamic Brussels Sprout Breakfast

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Brussels Sprouts, halved

1 lb. Pastured Bacon, chopped

4 Tbsp. Olive (or Avocado) Oil

3-4 Tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tbsp. Honey

3-4 Cloves Garlic, diced

Salt and Pepper, to taste

6 Pastured Eggs

1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese, grated

1/4 tsp. Red Pepper Flake

2 Tbsp. Chives, optional, at serving

Directions:

Preheat Oven to 400˚

Halve or roughly chop Brussels sprouts. Place in large bowl.

Add bacon, oil, vinegar, honey, garlic, salt, and pepper. Toss to coat.

Spread on oiled sheet pan. Bake 15-20 min., until sprouts begin to brown.

Make six voids for eggs, crack eggs onto pan.

Sprinkle with parmesan and red pepper flakes.

Bake another 7-9 minutes until whites set.

The Ultimate Egg Salad - Soup up a classic summer lunch.

We recently discovered this egg salad recipe, and it's my new favorite! Alton Brown always delivers, and with the power of Polyface pastured eggs and bacon ends, this is the ultimate egg salad.

Check it out: https://altonbrown.com/recipes/breakfast-egg-salad/

Saving Spring for Someday:

Try as we might to get them to happy homes, we still sometimes have piles of perfectly fresh spring eggs on hand, and we know it's time to get cracking. We now offer freeze-dried spring eggs! They're great to have on hand in emergencies, even if that's just running out of fresh pastured eggs in the shell! Cracked fresh, and frozen in-season, these aren't just for backpackers and preppers; they have fantastic shelf-life, yes, but they are also a true kitchen convenience for dishes like egg bakes and quiche. I regularly use them for quick scrambled eggs to go along with our breakfast sausage links, a real farmhand staple around here!

Working with Nature

I've been at Polyface for a full year now, and learning to let nature lead the seasonal dance of regenerative farming has been a wonderful experience. It feels right to welcome the gifts certain seasons bring. We lean into the hard work of an abundant harvest, and to take a moment to step back, give thanks, and rest before things naturally shift to the next job. I think it's important to recognize our place in a seasonal cycle by embracing this variety in our diet. It's a beautiful spring, and we are so blessed to have a bounty of spring-fresh pastured eggs. Let's all find ways to celebrate and make good use of a great thing.

(Photo credits Chris Walker)

Speaking the Unspeakable

All of us encounter taboo topics, going where angels fear to tread, and speaking the unspeakable. These cliches capture the dialogue land mines we tend to avoid because most of us have a bias toward self-preservation. Today, I'm going into that space because we've had a flurry of agriculture activity in the news. From President Trump's executive order in favor of regenerative agriculture to the opposite elevating the herbicide glyphosate to national security status to last week's decision to import below-market value lean ground beef product to then musing about reducing regulations on farmers processing their animals, we've seen all sorts of perceptions bandied about. Without getting into the politics of any of these things, here is the unspeakable truth: bad farming exists and good farming exists. There, I said it. The conventional cultural perspective is that farmers are farmers and farming is farming. It's an "all for one," and "one for all" Disney idea that all farming and farmers are in this together. To be fully transparent, as recently as a couple of months ago I used the term "bad farmers" and "good farmers." An astute and charitable friend pulled me aside to critique those phrases and suggest I only use "good farming" and "bad farming" in order to honor to not bag people. Fair enough. I'm now using only "bad farming" and "good farming." The reason this matters is because for decades now, nearly all government subsidies, grants, insurance, and incentives have gone to bad farming. This is why, for all the billions of annual federal expenditures, farms keep going downhill economically, ecologically, and emotionally. Of all the controversial things I've said about farming, by far and away the one that receives the most pushback is when I say bad farming exists. The conventional industrial complex hates the idea. Stink up the neighborhood? "We're just farmers." Pollute the groundwater? "We're just farmers." Dead zone the size of Rhode Island in the Gulf of Mexico due to chemical runoff in the Mississippi? "We're just farmers." With no distinction allowed in the discussion, farming that destroys soil, pollutes the water, desertifies the landscape, produces pathogen-laden food, and disrespects animal behavior gets to ride the emotional equity coat-tails of good farming. As a culture, we should defund bad farming, both publicly and privately. Farm protocols that destroy pollinators, view wildlife as inherently detrimental, and care not a whit about earthworm health are absolutely a national liability whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not. What are the traits of good farming? Here are some: 1. Build healthy soil. 2. Honor and respect biology, both plants and animals. 3. Prohibit poisons. 4. Increase pollinators. 5. Build immunological function. 6. Increase landscape hydration. 7. Smell good. 8. Look beautiful. 9. Operated by happy people. 10. Interact positively with neighbors. These are principles we try to honor every day here at Polyface, and your patronage enables us to continue pursuing these objectives. The fact that our farm has a 24/7/365 open door policy for anyone to come at anytime from anywhere to see anything unannounced confirms a transparency persona that leads to trust. If you haven't taken us up on this visit invitation, please do. When you look at the above list and think about what most people think about a farm environment, you won't find a single one of those items at a conventional chemical industrial outfit. That's sad but it's also tragic. It matters how a farm operates. It matters how animals get treated. It matters whether the farmer is happy or frustrated. Farming protocols determine these elements; hence, bad farming and good farming. The term regenerative farming is long and hard and not comprehensive. Why don't we just change the verbiage and call it good farming? I'm not embarrassed or afraid to say I practice good farming. And you should not be afraid to say you patronize good farming. Our farm family is indeed in this together, and it's all about good farming, good food. Don't apologize for saying you buy food from good farming instead of bad farming. Talk about a conversation starter. Boy howdy. That'll turn some heads. But you might just educate someone. Speaking the unspeakable is often the first step to waking folks up who are asleep at the wheel. Look in your refrigerator. Look in the pantry. What items come from good farming and which ones come from bad farming? Go ahead; make the distinction. And dare bad farming to defend itself. Speaking the unspeakable often leads to someone trying to defend the indefensible. Thank you for being the change we all want to see.

Chicken Eggs!

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Product Spotlight: Freeze Dried Eggs

Speaking the Unspeakable

Crockpot Chicken Chili

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