Salmonella: Which Eggs are Safe?

In the midst of a massive nationwide egg recall, I have had many people at the market say how glad they are to be buying eggs from pasture raised chickens so they can rest assured that these eggs are "safer" from salmonella than those of the large factory farms. I can assure you as an egg farmer of happy healthy pastured chickens that nothing could be farther from the truth.  In fact, one of the safest methods of producing eggs would be to put a hen in a cage by herself with no bedding or access to other birds. Obviously this would be incredibly inhumane and impractical, much like keeping your child padlocked in her room for her entire life would most certainly keep her safest from sexual predators. At some point a person must weigh the cost of safety and security against a life well-lived.

Consumers are often lured into a false sense of security by equating the labels of "organic," "natural," "cage free" etc to safety. In all reality, the way a hen lives her life has very little to do with the presence or absence of salmonella. What does make a difference is the handling of the egg from nest box (or conveyor belt if in a huge battery cage McFarm) to your table. Responsibility is shared from farmer to processor to shipper to store to customer. Certainly the fewer the steps in between the farm and you can often give you the advantage, but an irresponsible farmer at the Farmers Market could just as easily sell you a carton full of salmonellosis. So here are a few steps from store (or market) to table you can take to do all that you can to insure the eggs you eat are safe.

1. If at all possible, buy local from a local farmer. There are three big reasons this is a good idea. First, you can ask the farmer face-to-face what sort of safety practices they have in place. And if they can't give you a straight answer, WALK AWAY. Second, if (heaven forbid) there were a salmonella outbreak it would be smaller and more easily tracked and managed than with a multi-million egg recall covering nearly every state in the union.Third, farmers at markets tend to care about the people they feed and the critters and plants they do it with.
2. Do not buy a carton with a cracked or broken egg in it. Never mix and match eggs from the store, and never allow a farmer at a market to make any switches between cartons to replace cracked eggs. The entire carton should be thrown out. 
3. Do not let eggs get warm. Keep them refrigerated. Yes, it is true they do not do this in Europe, but in America all eggs must be washed in a bleach solution (50-100ppm in water) before they can be sold. In Tennessee it is illegal to sell eggs not washed in this manner, end of story. Any Tennessee farmer who brags that they only use organic or eco friendly wash or does not use bleach is breaking the law. It's a stupid law that I disagree with and I never do this for my own eggs, but I comply with the law with all eggs I take to the market. The washing method so stupidly insisted upon in Tennessee does help kill pathogens on the egg shell at the time of gather, but it also destroys the natural antibacterial protective membrane (bloom or cuticle) that covers the egg when it is laid by the hen. Without this protective layer the egg is now more susceptible contamination by pathogens. European countries do not use bleach egg washes and therefore have more confidence in not refrigerating their eggs. Side note: This is how I do things at home. I just knock any detritus off the shell and voila! Breakfast! I have been doing this every single morning for four years now and have never gotten ill from one of my eggs.
4. If you wash your eggshells off before cooking, do so with hot water only. Heat causes the interior of an egg to swell, pushing pathogens out. Cold causes the interior of an egg to shrink, pulling contaminants in.
5. Wash your hands immediately after cracking eggs open. Soap and hot water. It is extremely easy to contaminate your refrigerator or counter tops by "just putting a few things up first" before washing your hands. 
6. Thoroughly wipe down your counters and anything else that may have come in contact with eggs while you were preparing the food.
7. Cook eggs thoroughly. This means no sunny side up, no soft scrambling. Yolks must be solidly done, and scrambled eggs must have no liquid left. Never lick the cake batter or cookie dough, and kiss Mom's famous hollandaise goodbye. Or like me, accept that there is risk in life and enjoy it to the fullest!

What I do want to point out here is that there is no specific food we can avoid to protect ourselves from food-bourne pathogens. Anyone who follows the news of food recalls can see they are on the rise, and hello vegans, it's not just animal products. In fact it was organic spinach that caused the deadly e. coli outbreak of 2006. As of today there has been a salmonella outbreak in connection with the veggies used in some Northern Taco Bell restaurants. The answer is not to never again eat The answer is to change how our food is produced. Until the USDA and FDA have finally gotten back regulatory power no industrial food will ever be safe. Some of us believe that is the way things should be, that we should move permanently away from the huge industrial complex of factory farms and back to locally and sustainably produced agriculture. Don't take my word for it. Take a peek at the clip from Food Inc., my favorite documentary on the subject of food production. Clip.

Welcome!

This blog is dedicated to the adventures of a city hippy girl gone horribly wrong (or right, depending on your point of view). A few years ago my husband and I moved to a small family farm in West Tennessee with the intention of simplifying our lives in order to lower our footprint on the planet, and live a more sustainable lifestyle. For me, it was the decision to be a more compassionate person in my daily life, and that included my diet and how I affect the environment around me. For Michael, it was the challenge itself and the belief that our current standard of living as a species is in eminent danger (something I happen to agree with). For all of these and many other reasons, we felt it was time for a change. We decided to see just how far we could take this idea of subsistence farming and homesteading.

We were a bit overly ambitious at first, thinking we'd be completely off-grid within a few years. The Ingalls family with high speed internet. Boy were we in for a surprise. Due to various unforeseen circumstances from mistakes in planning to general lack of funds to make such a sweeping change so quickly, we soon backed off and decided the slow and steady approach was the best way to go about it. Frankly I think that's the best way to make any sort of changes to one's life anyway, so I'm pleased with the results we have achieved so far.

Our first project was to build a flock of chickens for meat and eggs. I had wanted chickens ever since I was a young child and apparently had a knack for it. When I was very young my parents on two occasions bought me an Easter duck and an Easter chick, fully expecting it to be my first lessons in responsibility and dealing with death. Of course, my Easter duck later became a humongous white peking duck that we later released into Fountain City Lake (duck pond), and the Easter chick went on to become a rooster who would crow on command, and eventually went to a local farmer who raised chickens. I never forgot those experiences, and dreamed of pigs, sheep, horses and chickens from that point on. It took 30 some-odd years to start realizing those dreams and I couldn't be happier about it.

We started small, with 24 chicks and 10 guineas from Ideal Poultry. We were most interested in heritage breeds, those nation-building breeds that have fallen out of favor with the introduction of Frankenchickens for large scale factory farms. Our first flock consisted of barred hollands, dark brahmas and americaunas. Unfortunately we made one big mistake with the design of our chicken tractor (basically a movable coop that allows for free foraging in a protected environment), resulting in a raccoon being able to push the door open. Within one night our group of 34 became a group of 12. I was devastated. But we learned from the mistake, made our improvements, and got a second hatching of buff orpingtons. As all the chicks began to grow into fully grown chickens, we worked on our chicken coop, turning it into Fort Chicken. Though we had originally hoped to free range (allow to wander freely without fences) our chickens it was all too apparent that with the coyote population and neighbors letting their dogs roam it was out of the question. So we created a large fenced in area for our feathered kids to enjoy by day, locking them into their safe coop at night. I'm happy to say we've not lost a single bird since due to predation, with the exception of two who have simply gotten old.

After the bottom dropped out on the economy, I became inspired by a story on NBC News about a group of chefs who started the SAME (So All May Eat) Cafe in Colorado. It is an organic cafe with fresh items made daily. Yet there are no prices on the menu. Rather, there is a donation box where diners pay only what they can afford. All diners are treated with the same respect and dignity regardless of their ability to pay for their meals. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, and the cafe thrives.

Inspired by the idea, we decided to turn Cluck-n-Neigh Farm into a donations-only egg business, where a customer is free to give us a donation of any amount (including none at all) in exchange for farm fresh, pastured eggs. Everyone has the right to eat compassionately regardless of the size of their wallet, and every animal that spends its life benefiting us has the right to be treated humanely and allowed to live according to their own natural behaviors. Our hens never see a cage from the time they replace fluff with feathers, and spend their days in the sun rooting around their yard with their buddies. They lay their eggs in nest boxes lined with straw as opposed to the horrific battery cages used by the major egg producers in this country. We are even a step above "cage free" eggs that you find in the supermarket, which is just another way of saying "no cages, but our chickens still never see the light of day because they are all stuck in a giant warehouse for their entire lives." It's sad how the industrial farm will do whatever it can to fool their customer into thinking their food comes from a humanely treated animal. If you want to find out more about how the Factory Farm is scamming you, I highly recommend the film Food Inc. Anyway, you won't find that here at Cluck-n-Neigh. We will tell you (and show you) exactly how your eggs are produced through this blog in print, photos, and videos taken right here.

Right now our hens produce around 2 dozen eggs a day, though this will increase as the days warm. This has allowed us to have enough eggs to offer to several families in the area who are undergoing hard times financially, yet still leaves us enough left over for me to supply eggs to those who are willing and able to offer donations to help support the business and keep it growing. I'm thrilled beyond measure.

As of this posting we are only $300 dollars or so in the red, and I'm hoping that will soon change. Our goal is simple: I want to support my "chicken habit" while feeding as many hungry people as possible. This might actually be possible within the next few months as we brand out into the Cooper Young Community Farmers Market. I'm making another investment to further grow our flocks because I'm completely smitten with a new discovery, the Buckeye. This year we are going to try our hand at hatching them from eggs. Michael said he'll put up a hatchcam for just that purpose, so stay tuned for details.

I hope this blog might prove of some use for anyone interested in a compassionate diet, sustainable living, or poultry in general. I'll be spending the next few days looking for some good informational links on compassionate eating and heritage breeds, two things near and dear to my heart. I also hope to be of help to anyone out there, so please feel free to ask questions if you have them. I'm no expert but I'll sure try my best to find the answers.

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