Free range and Cobble Hills Farm Sanctuary
As you may or may not know, I am a firm champion behind the theory that eggs are the perfect meal. Go ahead... Try and argue me out of it. This is one fight you cannot win. Why? Because simply put, eggs are little ovoids of happiness securely wrapped in their hard, evasive shells of protein matrix ready to be fashioned into many different (and uniquely flavoured) forms, as you see fit: scrambled, fried, over easy, poached (my favorite), meringued, egg salad-ed, etc. And because I'll punch you in the stomach and run away shouting "Eggs! Eggs!" at the top of my lungs, it's best you just agree.
That said, I've recently (as of the last year) made the switch to free-range eggs. And I seriously can't tell you what a difference it makes. Not only in the way the eggs look--big, bright yellow, clear white, no little weird filmy/slippery bit clinging to the side of the yoke--or taste--fresh--but because of the inevitable betterment you're bringing your body, and because of how much better they are for the environment.
Listen up, folks. I am by no means David Suzuki. I'm sometimes too lazy to recycle my toilet paper rolls, and I don't carry my own mug to Second Cup. And I won't pretend I know what I'm talking about. But when I hear from someone who does know, and who I trust to give me the green light, I listen.
Chris was a friend of Beef's growing up. They road horses together or some such nonsense (while I played in the horse poo, but that's another story for another time...) Chris was always a champion of animal rights. Not in a militant, red-paint kind of way. But in a gentle, she-makes-me-want-to-be-a-better-person kind of way. She's one of the few people I know (besides maybe Nina and Jeremy) who has taken her ideas and her family 'all the way'. In 2006 they opened their dream sanctuary farm just outside Stratford, Ontario: Cobble Hills Farm Sanctuary. Together they rescue battery farm chickens and her video story from the Toronto Star changed me:
I could never go back to purchasing regular eggs after seeing these little chicky's in their wee sweaters. I trust what she says. And while I'm in no place to adopt my own hen, I can support the cause by no longer purchasing battery farm eggs. Voila! I'm a free-ranger. Taste, texture, and peace of mind = well worth the extra $2 a carton.
Side note: Chris also introduced me to The Smiths, Morrissey, and Spirit of the West all in one glorious mixed tape (thank you, Chris!)
2 comments:
Yay! I eat free-range eggs too, but its because I used to feed my neighbours free-range chickens. And even though the egg-laying free-rangers were kind of jerks, it still would make me sad to think of them growing up in warehouses.
Surprisingly - the egg-laying chickens were d-bags and I wouldn't have minded taking an axe to one of them; but the raised-for-meat chickens were actually cute and sweet. Hmmm.
-hurr_ah
But how would you prefer to live your life, Hurr_ah? Hmm? A long (relatively) life squeezing something from your butt every couple of hours or a short-lived existance spent lounging about, fattening oneself, blissfully unaware of one's doomed fate.
FYI, I clearly have no idea what part of the chicken the egg plops out of, nor do I know how many eggs they lay a day... Nor do I care to. But I would think option B is far superior to option A.
Have you seen Chicken Run?
"They're organized..."
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