Welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast. We are literally drowning in eggs at the moment. They are taking over my kitchen countertops and even with eating eggs for as many meals as we can possibly handle, I still can't keep up. It's that time of year. And here are some of my very best strategies for handling and a egg excess. I'm your host Jill winger and this is the podcast for the trailblazers, the Mavericks, the makers, the homesteaders, the modern pioneers and the backyard farmers. If you've ever found yourself disenchanted with conformity and you'd just like to swim upstream while the rest of society rides the river of least resistance, well you found your tribe. So Someday, I am bound and determined that I will figure out how to regulate egg production in some way. I mean, I know there's ways to do it. It's just, it seems like time and time again we either have feast or famine and up till this point we have been pretty slim on eggs in the house. I'm blaming it on a combination of old chickens and young dogs who don't learn easily that chickens are not appropriate play things. But we've just kinda been in a season, I mean almost like a year or maybe a little over a year, where we just haven't had a lot of farm fresh eggs. So naturally what I proceeded to do was, last spring, when the chicks were at the feed store in town, I bought a lot of them. Right. Cause it felt like it was a smart thing to do because all we ever talked about was not having eggs. And so I bought ten the first trip and then I went back and realized they were 50% off. So obviously I cannot control my actions and I bought a couple more and then I went back a couple of weeks later thinking the chicks were gone and they were still on sale and I just couldn't resist. So now we're paying for my poor decision making skills and we have a lot of chickens. People keep asking me how many we have, to which I respond very truthfully, I don't know because I haven't counted them in a while or actually more realistically, most of them are in the chicken coop, which could be counted. But then there's a rogue herd or flock. I am a farm girl, obviously. There is a rogue flock of chickens, roaming the barn yard. They will not stay in the chicken coop. So I don't know how many there are loose because they hide. They roost in the rafters. I can't always find them. So I don't know how many chickens we have, but we have a lot of eggs. Like uh, the kids are bringing in sometimes 10 or 12 a day or more and the bowls are overflowing on the counters. The fridge is full. And we are eating eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it seems, so anyway, I'm really truly not complaining. It's a good problem to have and it is kind of one of the fun, I use that term loosely, fun things of growing your own food because there are just seasons where you're drowning in eggs or you're drowning in zucchini or cabbage or fresh milk and it teaches you to get creative if nothing else. So anyway, beyond selling excess eggs or giving them away, I wanted to give you some other ideas cause I know that if you have chickens, odds are you will come into contact with this issue at some point in your home studying life. And I know as homesteaders we're always exchanging egg use idea. So here's some of mine. First off I just have to say, cause I get this question a lot, preserving eggs is tricky business. I love the idea of preserving eggs for the seasons of the year where it's an egg famine. It's a great idea. It doesn't work out so well in practice. At least I have found and I've tried a lot of things. And, if you look on my blog, theprairiehomestead.com there's some old posts from back in the day when I was experimenting with egg preservation methods quite unsuccessfully. I initially, the one that sticks out in my mind is dehydrating. So I got a dehydrator. I'm like, I found some tutorials and books and stuff that were like, Oh, dehydrate your eggs and you can rehydrate them and use them in baking. And so I did. I think I scrambled them first, then cooked them and then I put the scrambled eggs on the dehydrator trays and dried them. I mean, I'm guessing you can picture how this turned out. It was a disaster. It didn't work out well. And I feel like all the people in the books and the blogs who told me that this worked and was feasible were lying because the dehydrated eggs, like you were supposed to kind of grind them up or whatever. It just, it was gross. Super gross. So, I don't recommend dehydrating eggs. The consistency upon rehydration will be less than ideal. That's all I have to say on that topic. Okay. Another preservation method I have tried is freeze drying, which I have a post on the blog all about freeze dryers because a company called harvest right, sent me a home freeze dryer to test out to it and give it to me. I just got to try it for a couple months. It was pretty cool. And the whole, the post on the blog gives the details of why we didn't end up buying one ourselves. It was a cool machine and it, I think would probably have been the best route for making powdered eggs, which I still haven't figured out really what to do with powdered eggs. But I know they're a survival pantry food staple. So if you wanted to make your own freeze dried powdered eggs, I think that machine would be a great route. It is pricey. It is not something you would buy just for the sole purpose of dealing with your egg excess. But if you already have the machine, or you're thinking about a freeze dryer that is one use that could be beneficial to you. So there's dehydrating, there's freeze drying and then there's just plain old freezing. So a method I had tried in the past as well was breaking the raw eggs into, you know, freezable containers, Tupperware or whatever. And I think slightly scrambling them with a little bit of salt and then just popping them in the freezer. It, it wasn't horrible. Honestly, the results weren't horrible. It just that the texture wasn't the same. And honestly if I had any sort of fresh egg in my house, I would have opted for that instead of dealing with thawing out the frozen eggs or even eating the frozen eggs just because the texture wasn't awesome. So I'm not ruling out freezing as a preservation method entirely, but I will say it's not my favorite. And you may not really want to lean on that as your primary strategy for using up eggs. Along that same line, there is a technique called water glassing. I think I could be saying that wrong or have the terms mixed up, which involves coating the egg in, um, a type of chemical. I should have Googled this before I started recording. But anyway, it's an old technique. You coat the egg and you just leave it in your root cellar. And the idea is that it kind of seals off the pores of the egg shell and preserves the egg. I've heard old timers say that this method works decently well. I haven't tried it because I had some concerns that the chemical you would be coating the egg in would get into the egg and it just wasn't like, didn't like the idea of that. But it's worth looking into if you're just bound and determined to figure out how to preserve your eggs for later. So there is my long list of failed, preservation methods. I wish I had a different story to tell you, but that is just the truth. So what I do like to do, you're like, okay, Jill, we know w hat doesn't work. What does work? What I really like to do with my egg excess is just use them fresh and get really, really creative in how I'm going to use them fresh. So here are some of my ideas for that. And that's the thing I love about seasonal foods is you eat them to the point you're kind of sick of them and then they go away and by the time they roll back around when they're in season again, whether that's watermelon or your squash or your green beans or your milk, you're ready for it. So see, I think seasonal eating is actually kind of cool. We're so used to having everything available at the grocery store 24 seven. We were totally out of that habit of thinking of food as seasonal. So it's not a bad thing to glut on something for a while and then take a break from it. Hey friend, I'm interrupting this episode for just a sec so we can talk about seeds. I'm getting a ton of emails and messages right now from folks who are on the hunt for a reliable source of organic heirloom seeds. And I just have to say I have fallen head over heels for true leaf market lately. In the past I've gotten really frustrated when I try to find certain seeds locally because they're either sold out or they just don't have the varieties I want. But true leaf market is like having a virtual seed rack in your home at your fingertips, they have a ton of varieties including all the vegetables, the herbs, the flowers, the micro greens and their seeds have a very high germination rate and bonus. They ship crazy fast. Head on over to theprairiehomestead.com/seeds to have a look at their very user friendly website and add a packet or 12 maybe to your seed stash for this year and now back to our episode. But anyway, some of my favorite recipes to use my eggs that don't involve freezing or drying or powder things. Number one, a frittata or a quiche. I think these are basically the same thing. Quiche is more of the title that was used in my childhood, which was never something I particularly looked forward to and I knew we were having quiche or supper. So I like the name fritatta. Phil's a little more exciting and not as 1995 casserole ish. That's totally my own perception. You may have another, a different idea on that entirely, but basically frittata is a vegetables or potatoes and cheese mixed with eggs and you bake it all together. So last night I made an asparagus mushroom frittata, we did a potato crust. Added the vegetables, poured the eggs and a little bit of milk on top with some cheese and it's just really good. It's hearty, it's filling, it can go breakfast or supper. And you can use lots of veggies, whatever vegetables are in season or whatever vegetables you need to use up from your fridge. It uses those and it uses anywhere from like six to 10 eggs or more depending on how big of a pan you're using. I just use a cast iron skillet ten-inch but it's, it's a good standby and you can really mix it up with different vegetables or different additives to make it taste different. So definitely Google or check out on Pinterest frittata recipes. If you have a bunch of eggs on your counter, like I do. Another way we like to use that the eggs are with puffy pancakes, also known as German pancakes. And I have a really popular recipe for an Apple cinnamon puffy pancake on my blog. We'll post the link in the show notes. And also in my cookbook, the cookbook one has gotten more shares and social media traffic, I think than anything else. So in case you are new to the idea of a puffy pancake, it's not a bready pancake. And I really want you to understand this because I've gotten people, just a handful, send me messages and they're like, this pancake in your cookbook is gross. It tastes like eggs. And I'm like, well let's, because it's an egg pancake, it is not your classic bready, flapjack pancake, a German pancake or a puffy pancake is a egg base. So it's more along the lines of a pop-over or a crepe consistency flavor because it is so egg heavy, which is why we like it, right? Because it uses up eggs. I use six eggs or five eggs, I can't remember, five or six in my puffy pancake. And it's a very quick breakfast, very simple, simple enough that a kid can help you make it or make it for you and it puffs out of the pan, really impressive and it's just fun and no fuss. So that's a great breakfast idea or even for lunch or snack or whatever. Okay. Custards or puddings, definitely a favorite. They'll use a healthy amount of egg yolks. Generally most of the time you don't use the whites. Although I know there are a few recipes I've seen that do. So I have a recipe for maple custard on the blog with that uses duck or goose eggs, but you can totally use chicken eggs as well. And then pudding is another one we love for desserts. You can put it in a pie crust, you can eat it individually with whipped cream on top. And I recently published a YouTube video that shows my butterscotch pudding technique that uses up I think six egg yolks. So that's a great option. Good. If you have to take a dessert somewhere and make a pudding pie or make a pudding, something, use up those eggs. Okay. So naturally we put eggs in recipes. We also just eat them plain I guess. So scrambled eggs for breakfast is pretty much our standby right now for the rest of our lives until the egg, the egg excess goes away. Just simple scrambled eggs. We do them in a cast iron skillet with lots of olive oil so they don't stick. Sometimes I put a little cream cheese in there just to make it more exciting, a little creamier. We're also doing a lot of hard boiled eggs. And in case you haven't seen my tutorial for hard boiled eggs in your instant pot, it will change your life forever because if you have fresh chicken, eggs, you know, they're hard to peel. If you boil them, it's almost impossible. So when you steam them in your instant pot or even if you steam them in a basket or a rack in a pot, they, the shells fall off. It's magical. So I will link my instant pot hard boiled egg technique. Also in the show notes, there's going to be a lot of links in the show notes today. But I will literally cram a bunch of eggs in my instant pot, put a cup of water in there, set up for five minutes, and then I'll stick the finished eggs in the fridge and the kids will have them as snacks and super easy or we make them into deviled eggs. If we need to take something to a potluck or a party, it's always deviled eggs this time of year. But the simpler the better. Right? And the kids really like it with a little bit of salt. So it's a win win all the way around. Another idea for you is breakfast burritos, make them heavy on the eggs, maybe even egg and cheese, right? Uh, you could also freeze these, so you're going to have better results, I think freezing eggs in something else versus just trying to freeze them all on their own. So a breakfast burritos, wrap them up with some sausage, potato, whatever you want. Just put a lot of eggs in there, a little bit of cheese, and then you can either wrap them up individually in foil or put them in a pan and pop them in the oven to reheat. Super simple breakfast on the go, a great lunch on the go, stick them on the lunchboxes, and it uses up those eggs. Another item that you can make and then freeze is homemade pasta. And again, y ou have a link on the blog, we'll share in the show notes. But pasta uses, I don't know, three or four eggs per batch. And the cool thing about it is that you can make it ahead and freeze it. And it's not gonna make the eggs won't turn funky in the pasta. Right? It's a good way that you can preserve them and you have ready to go pasta at any given time. You don't need a fancy pasta machine to make pasta. You can literally just do it with a rolling pin and a knife if you want to keep it really simple. But it's a crowd pleaser. It's great for company. It just elevates your, your spaghetti's or whatever else you're serving. Just makes it a little bit fancier and it's so dang good. So pasta uses eggs, pasta is your friend. And lastly, the classic desserts, you know, meringues, angel food cake, um, they use lots of egg whites. So maybe you make pudding with the egg yolks, you save the egg whites to make the merengue or the angel food cake and you have a complete sugar high for the weekends. But those are also classic ways to use up those eggs. So those are some of my best ideas. I'd love to hear yours. So if you have some magical recipes that use up a lot of eggs, definitely post them over on Instagram or Facebook and give me a tag so I can check them out. But I would just encourage you to whatever you're dealing with right now, if you have a lot of any sort of food item from your home set efforts, roll with it. Like really allow it to inspire you to get creative and think outside of the box I talked about on a previous episode where I explained how I get inspired when I'm in a meal planning rut. But a glut of an ingredient is one of my primary methods I use to spur me on to new ideas. So whether it's eggs or squash or whatever, let it help you be inspired to dig into your cookbooks, to search on Google or Pinterest a little bit more. Look on your favorite blogs, see what other ways you can use those foods. Expand your pallet and put them to good use. So if you're falling in love with the idea of an old fashioned intentional kitchen full of lots of nourishing food, enriched memories, you will love my heritage kitchen handbook. It's a little e-guide that I've packed full of my very best tricks for cooking and eating like a farmer, even if you live in the city and you can grab it for free over www.heritagekitchenhandbook.com and that's it. Don't forget to hit subscribe so all the new episodes show up automatically, just a little bit easier for you. And if you found this episode helpful, not helpful, maybe it's helpful if you have a lot of eggs, but helpful. Take a picture of your notes or a screenshot of the episode and give me a tag over on Facebook or Instagram. I usually share those when I see them, so it'd be a little shout out as well. Thanks for listening and we'll catch up next time on the next episode of the old fashioned on purpose podcast.