Gene falls, Gene fell, Gene's fallen: Free-Range Chicken Eggs

Hello chic friends! I rarely blog about food 'cause I'm not really the chef type who can talk about ingredients and how-to's with pizazz (though I'd like to try...someday). I love to eat, don't get me wrong, although it's not that obvious visually :)

And for the past (probably) four years or so, I've shifted to healthy eating.

When I went back to my Makati job, I resolved to avoid fast food chains as much as possible. I missed Wendy's and Burger King ('cause we don't have them in Iloilo...yet) and so I allowed my cravings to be answered in my first week in Makati, but that's about it. This 2013, I've been a good healthy eater by my standards. =D

Enough for the preachy introduction on healthy eating. I only wanted to talk about brown eggs. =)

I've always preferred these brown ones over the whites. When I went home to Iloilo, I found out that brown eggs are not sold at the supermarkets (not even at SM). I tried to compensate by limiting my egg consumption (hahaha --- As a kid, I was an egg addict and it went on until adulthood). I had the occasional “native” eggs gifted by my godfather who is really industrious (at his age and health condition) to take care of “native” chickens in a small empty lot beside their house (and mind you, inside a subdivision; no excuses for those who say they have nothing to eat but are too lazy to grow their own vegetables.)

It felt good to be back in Makati and to find these brown eggs again. My favorite pick is the Organicus brand which I usually find at the Landmark supermarket. Six eggs cost about Php 70+ --- I know, these are pricier than the white counterparts.

They are smaller usually (as you can see in the picture below) and have brighter yellow yolk than the white-shelled ones.

They're now called “free range” eggs in the market which means that they are hatched from chickens who were raised organically, i.e., those which were not fed laying mass or other artificial feeds --- usually these are the “white leghorn chickens”. Leghorns are good layers of white eggs, laying an average of 280 per year and sometimes reaching 300–320. They have a good feed-to-egg conversion ratio, needing around 125 grams per day of feed. Leghorns rarely exhibit broodiness and are thus well suited for uninterrupted egg laying. (Source: Wikipedia - Atlante delle razze di Polli - Razze italiane: Livorno Accessed December 2011, in Italian, "Atlas of chicken breeds - Italian breeds: Livorno")

Free-range-raised chickens are also smaller in built and are usually free to roam their surroundings to find their own natural food (as what chickens are supposed to do before everything became “commercialized” for the mass market; thus, the “free range” label). Since what goes in those chickens gets to the eggs they hatch, we want only the all-natural in the eggs we have for our meals.

If I'd have my way, it would be eggs in my breakfast everyday. But since it's not a healthy brekky lifestyle, I'm content in having them at most twice a week (whoa, self-control, I know) and having them brown and organic.

Let's all stay healthy and fab :)

P.S. Proof here that I "break my fast" with eggs.