May newsletter - A new flock of hens has arrived at the farm...
Welcome to the May edition of the Food For Kent newsletter, where Farmer Doug tells you about his new flock of hens:
A
couple of weeks ago we took delivery of a new flock of young free range
hens. These hens normally start laying 2-3 weeks later, once they have
reached a certain weight and level of maturity.
The best two things about young
hens are firstly the early pullet eggs which are divine, but also the
double yolker eggs. I take these eggs home and my children flock (there
are only two of them but I thought 'flock' went well with a newsletter
about chickens and eggs!) around the frying pan and the excitment when
two or even three yolks come out is almost too much to bear. The record
we have had has been five yolks from a single egg!!
We get double yolkers for the first few weeks (all are available to buy on Food For Kent)
of a hen's egg laying career, like many novices they struggle at the
beginning and are just not very good at getting the right number of
yolks in each shell. This soon passes as their bodies get the hang of
it and we end up with a rather boring combination of one white, one yolk and one shell.
Although
frying them is clearly a winner and poaching fresh eggs is great, I
think one of my all time and simple treats is softly boiling a couple
of eggs and dipping steamed, buttered and black peppered asparagus spears into an egg with multiple yolks. It is no coincidence that on this farm we grow both and I am ever so slightly overweight!!
Taste the difference today, buy fresh, local produce online.
Happy shopping!
Farmer Doug