They won’t be coming from this rooster, but you can get eggs like you’ve never had them before when the Lexington Farmers Market opens this Saturday, April 12. Here’s how Elmwood Stock Farm egg-whisperer Ann Bell Stone describes Elmwood’s incredible pastured, certified organic eggs:

“This week’s focus is on fresh eggs from our free-ranging organic laying hens. Our chickens live outdoors in fresh air, are provided clean running water, are able to hunt and peck for “chick treats” like bugs and worms, enjoy a diet of grass seedheads and clover, and are offered a balanced meal of organic grains and minerals. Remember that the color of the yolk indicates a more healthy food — the more yellow-ee or orang-ee, the better! Eggs from chickens eating grass are naturally lower in cholesterol and contain more beneficial omega-3 fatty acids (up to 10 times more than regular store-bought eggs).”

I have been concerned about the farmers who grow much of my family’s food. As fuel prices increase, so do their costs. Since their food already seems to cost more because buyers actually are paying more of the true costs of production and transportation than with supermarket food, I have feared our incredible local growers might lose precious business.

In “Some Good News on Food Prices“, Kim Severson suggests in the New York Times that I may have this just wrong. I hope so!

If the costs of fuel make Big Macs and mass produced iceberg lettuce costs rise, people may be willing to pay just a bit more to buy Big Mac Stone’s fine pastured certified organic Black Angus ground round and ground chuck. And a virtual forest of beautiful organic lettuces from great local farms like Blue Moon Farm, Hazelfield Farm, Three Springs Farm, Terrapin Hill Farm, Elmwood, and many more.

It’s a trickle, not a flood, but central Kentuckians are beginning to want real milk, not the rearranged white molecules almost universally offered in local stores. In this we are joining a national wave of interest in good, clean, fairly produced milk that has not had much human intervention. Recent articles in the New York Times and Boston Globe describe the situation, both the interest and the dicey legal situation:

The Dairies are Half-Pint, but the Flavor Isn’t

Got Raw Milk?

Should This Milk Be Legal?

In addition, Harper’s Magazine, in its April, 2008 edition, available online only to subscribers, includes a Read the rest of this entry »