Saturday, March 12, 2005

Marin Sun Farm Eggs

Marin Sun Farm Eggs come from Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn Crossbred chickens who spend their days in grassy pastures and eat a varied diet. You can buy them at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmer's Market, $6 for a dozen. Recently I have been having a craving for fresher eggs. First, the eggs they use at Tabla, who make a habit of buying their ingredients fresh from local farmers, piqued my interest for that old-fashioned eggy, eggy taste. Next I became smittten by the two eggs on my Pizza at Pizzetta 211. They use Rosie's Farm eggs and, wow, did they taste good. After that, I decided, no more lazily picking up a carton of eggs at Wholefoods, I had to get to the market and find the freshest eggs available instead.

beautiful fresh eggs from Marin Sun Farms

Marin Sun Farm's eggs included a blue one in their carton. The romantic in me finds the idea of a blue-shelled egg quite exciting. It's like finding a piece of hidden treasure. The colour of the shell makes no difference to the taste, however. All of the eggs had the most intense, gorgeous, deep, golden yellow yolks.

recipe leeks vinaigrette with hard boiled eggs

Leeks Vinaigrette
First clean and trim a bunch of leeks. We used the tiny, baby, end-of-season leeks we picked up at the farmer's market last weekend. Fred specifically asked me to cook them well. He's not always into California-style crunchy vegetables. When it comes to leeks I agree with him. When I ate a version in Paris last summer, they were a little undercooked and I got a string of leek caught in my throat. I thought I was going to die.
Simmer the leeks until soft, drain under cold water and then pat dry on kitchen paper. Place eggs in cold water, bring to boil and then leave in a rolling simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan, run under cold water, peel and quarter. Serve with your favourite vinaigrette. A really hot, mustardy one would be our choice. Made with a big dessert spoon dollop of Dijon, 1/4 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup of oil, sea salt, black pepper and, if you remember to buy it, a finely minced shallot.

Pricey at $6 a dozen. But the quality, the colour and the taste were very, very good. Yum!
Marin Sun Farm Eggs

8:53 AM  

5 Comments:

  • At 12/3/05 11:42, Blogger Molly said…

    I absolutely love leeks vinaigrette, and I agree with you and Fred--the leeks need to be nice and limp. Those eggs look delicious on top--so jewel-like! I can't wait for farmers' market season to roll around up here in Seattle...mmm, eggs!

     

  • At 13/3/05 00:25, Blogger Reid said…

    Hi Sam,

    I haven't been here in a while, but those eggs look amazing! Is the blue colored one natural? I've never seen a blue egg before. We do get brown eggs here, but I don't think they're organic.

     

  • At 13/3/05 02:13, Blogger Anthony said…

    Free range. No wonder they taste good. No excuses for buying battery eggs, I've been known to glare at supermarkets.

     

  • At 15/3/05 09:08, Blogger Cerebrum said…

    Those are beautiful eggs Sam. I don't care what they would cost, if I could get anything like them here, I'd pay... well, almost an arm for them!

     

  • At 29/9/07 09:16, Blogger Jo@LittleFfarm Dairy said…

    Hi Sam -

    don't know whether you've seen our Blog, but we keep a small flock of free-range, organically managed hens, ducks & geese; & the eggs are completely different from those you'd normally taste: deep golden, almost tangerine yolks with a wholesome, rich, earthy flavour sat on their plump white pillows - delicious. We have Black Rocks, Bluebells, Leghorns & Light Sussex hens with a Barnevelder cockerel; plus a breeding pair of Brecon Buff geese, & three Indian Runner ducks. Whilst all the hens lay standard brown eggs, there is a breed called the Legbar which lays all sorts of colours - from purest white to darkest chocolate-brown, with a rainbow in between - blue, apricot, olive - to name but a few. So in answer to Reid's question - yes they are natural. We also have pigs, sheep & goats - we run a small dairy making artisan goats' cheese, yogurt & ice cream - & have two big horses & two tiny Shetland ponies to do the heavy work about the farm such as logging (we don't have central heating, just a big woodburning stove at either end of the house, & a old range in the kitchen). It's a wonderful life but hard work as you can imagine! But we certainly DO eat local - it either comes from the garden; wild food foraged from fields, hedgerows & woodlands; or as eggs or meat from the poultry, sheep & pigs with our dairy produce from the goats. I think we're very lucky to eat such fresh, natural produce - but not many people these days would take their own livestock to slaughter, as they don't like the thought. But we at least know the animals had the best life possible with us. If you want to know more please have a look at the Blog - it's at http://littleffarmdairy.wordpress.com. And there are two Fs in 'Ffarm' - we're in Wales, UK!

     

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