Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Oooooh egg pucky!

I have been hearing about the bird flu and the affect this will be having on eggs.  I am sure you have heard the stories as well.  My first reaction to rising prices was "horse pucky" (sort of!).
According to reports, tens of thousands of egg chickens have been destroyed.  Eggs are rising in price.
Last week at Aldi, eggs were up .80/dozen from the week before.  That's a pretty big increase in one week.  Prices are supposed to hit the peak price this fall and the high prices are supposed to last through Spring of 2016.   We have a few holidays in that time frame, and many involve baking!

The price of chicken hasn't risen yet, and they say it won't.  Egg chickens and meat chickens are raised separately.  I am not believing it!  I have been purchasing chicken and vacuum sealing and freezing whenever I find a great price. (I love my vacuum sealer).
I have also been getting eggs for the future.  HOW you ask?  I am freezing them!

I am using muffin tins to freeze eggs in.  My ice cube trays have small compartments and I always buy large eggs.  Simply use cooking spray or lightly grease tins and pop an egg in each unit.  Break the yellow for more even freezing.  Once frozen I pop them out and store in freezer bags.  I manage to get 2 dozen eggs in a gallon bag.  I put a layer of wax paper between them.  Eggs will last well upwards of a year frozen.  **Always thaw in the refrigerator and not at room temperature.
Buy now while cheap and store for later. 
Egg pucks!!!!!


I have also been using another muffin tray to make large ice cubes as well!  We go through a lot of ice in the summer and I refuse to PAY for it!  So along with the  regular ice cubes I am making giant ones!
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We have been having a lot of rain in the past week and supposedly will continue to have the remainder of the week.  I have not had to water the garden, and my rain barrels are both full!  The garden is growing like crazy and so is the grass! 
We have lots of green tomatoes hanging on the vines, lots of baby zucchini, cucumbers, and bell peppers as well.  I have been picking lettuce and green onions and we have had lots of salads.
How is your garden growing?

13 comments:

  1. Interesting concept. I'll have to check the prices of eggs here I haven't bought any for a while as I usually buy 5 doz at a time at our local restaurant supply house. I like the idea of the ice too.
    We haven't had much rain so hubby has been watering our garden but things are coming along nicely.

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    1. Sixty eggs! How do you use up 60 eggs, it would take me three weeks to do that! I never thought about going to the local restaurant supply house to get groceries. I think Sysco delivers in this area, but whose do you use, Laurie? (if it is all right to ask!)

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  2. Hey Cheryl, I am sooo glad you posted about this! I got an email this week from our Penn State extension advocate on the egg situation. Sadly I deleted it after reading it but here is another link about the USA response ... perhaps we will see baking goods rise in price also. http://fda-news.registrarcorp.com/2015/06/fda-egg-avian-flu/

    I can send you some rain LaurieS ! everyday this week we have had showers or a thunderstorm, our grass in green and the garden greener, but unlike Cheryl, no produce to eat yet except lettuces and radishes and celery...goodness Cheryl, when did you put those plants in the ground? and you must have covered them from the spring frosts!

    I noticed a green pepper in my neighbor's garden and her kale in the tower garden is moving along nicely...this is a tower garden she wheels inside in the cold weather. Interesting as it is hydroponic, fed with a two solution nutrient mix at the base and the water pump brings it up six feet and then slowly the fluid trickles down to feed the plant plugs.

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  3. If you want to bake a cake but don't have enough eggs try 'Depression Cake' - recipes abound on the internet and you will find many variations, I found one in my Amish Cookbook (Big Valley, PA) that was the best eggless butterless 'gingerbread' I ever ate! It even passed the Tall German Guy test (he was a post-doc in our lab).

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  4. Cash & Carry out here in the West.
    I use a lot of eggs so they don't go to waste.

    Sorry this is so short this is the 3rd time I'm trying to get this published.

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    1. yes, it takes me a bit to navigate Google too - I looked at our restaurant supplier here Sysco but couldn't figure it out, I do know a woman who sells eggs so maybe there, or I could talk with the grocery store and see if I could get a quantity discount (one time), I think 30 eggs were 23 cents each?

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    2. yes, it takes me a bit to navigate Google too - I looked at our restaurant supplier here Sysco but couldn't figure it out, I do know a woman who sells eggs so maybe there, or I could talk with the grocery store and see if I could get a quantity discount (one time), I think 30 eggs were 23 cents each?

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  5. Ellen, This is the link www.smartfoodservice.com. I just checked their egg prices 5 DZ is 16.47 they are extra large and I really like them. I guess I'm just spoiled. The eggs I get from other stores just smell like whatever they clean them with and that bothers me. These have no odor and I prefer the extra large size.
    We are suppose to be having cooler temps today and tomorrow then crank it up again on Sunday and next week.

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    1. thanks for the link LaurieS! That seems to be about right at 27 cents an egg. I'll be going to the grocery store today to see what the prices have risen to, last time they were 23 cents an egg...but the large size... I so miss our Stella's eggs (she is three now and doesn't lay anymore even though she tries desperately by sitting in the box repeatedly throughout the day)...her eggs were jumbo sized and two large would equal one Stella egg. ah well...

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    2. I found this link today on how eggs are prepared for sale, I bet it's the final sanitizing rinse that you can detect LaurieS!
      http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/5235aa20-fee1-4e5b-86f5-8d6e09f351b6/Shell_Eggs_from_Farm_to_Table.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

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    3. So, I went shopping at Weis and got the 30 eggs for $6.37... that is $.212 per egg or 21 cents per egg plus the styrofoam and cardboard packaging (recycle into something in my house, but what?).

      I set aside 18 of them for cooking now and will do EGG PUCKS with the rest. I hope that next month the price is just as low.

      The eggs were the Large size.

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    4. Ellen, I got another 2 doz. at Aldi for 2.29/doz. Works out to .19 per egg. About 4 weeks ago, they were as low as 1.29 doz. Even at 2.29 they are much cheaper than any other store in our area.

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  6. Oooo Aldis! I made a dozen egg pucks so far. My daughter gave me 6 chicken breasts frozen from her freezer. And Giant had a sale so I got 8 more split half breasts for $1.49 a pound, now in my freezer. That should be good for a few months.

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