Egg salad

Egg salad may not be the most profound topic... but egg salad made from fresh local eggs is really something to write home about... So here is a bit of egg trivia to enjoy with your sandwich..

• Most eggs are laid between 7-11 AM
• A hen requires 24 to 26 hours to produce an egg. Thirty minutes later, she starts all over again.
• The difference between brown and white-shelled eggs is the breed of hen.  Breeds with white earlobes (and feathers) lay white eggs; breeds with red earlobes (and brown feathers) lay brown eggs.  Both white and brown eggs have the same nutritional qualities.
• As a hen ages, her eggs increase in size.  Small eggs come from young hens, while jumbo eggs are laid by older hens. 
• Occasionally, a hen will produce double-yolked eggs. It is rare, but not unusual, for a young hen to produce an egg with no yolk at all.
• The little white ropey strands in an egg white are called “chalaza”.  Their function is to anchor the yolk in the center of the egg.  They are neither imperfections nor beginning embryos, and are completely safe to eat.  In fact, the more prominent the chalazae, the fresher the egg!
• Nobody really knows when the first fowl was domesticated, although Indian history places the date as early as 3200 B.C.  Egyptian and Chinese records show that fowl were laying eggs for man in 1400 B.C. It is believed that Columbus' ships carried the first of the chickens related to those now in egg production to this country.