Gather up pasture-raised eggs from Echo Valley Farms
So what is the difference between cage-free, free-range and pasture-raised eggs? The answer is a lot when you really look into it.
Both cage-free and free-range can actually mean chickens are still jam-packed in a massive shed walking around in their own mess with limited opportunity to go outside into a fenced yard. The new term being presented as the ultimate in chicken farming is pasture-raised, meaning chickens are free to roam in a sunny field with grass and bugs as nutrition. So what does that say about where we should buy our eggs and what labelling best describes what is more nutritious and ethical? Your best bet on truly understanding how your eggs are produced is to buy direct from the farmer at your local farmers market.
Echo Valley Farms from Goomburra Valley near Warick has about 1600 pasture-raised hens producing roughly 400 cartons a week in winter and doubling to about 800 cartons a week in summer, all of which are gently packed up and presented at the Davies Park Market (and Moggill and The Gap Farmers’ Market in summer).
Echo Valley Farms is a 350-acre stud farm, so space is one thing it has in abundance. The hens are housed freely in old retro-fitted caravans or purpose-built mobile sheds, all of which are moved regularly from field to field following the migration of the cattle, giving the chickens fresh grass, manure and bugs to scratch through and feed off. Juanita and Randal Breen from Echo Valley Farms passionately believe in this holistic farming that bio-mimics nature and plan to add lambs and pigs to complete the circle.
It’s great to see small farmers holding on to the authenticity of words and taking back from the big corporations, whilst contributing to saving the planet by producing and eating better food. Pasture-raised eggs are proven to have less cholesterol, less saturated fat, more vitamin A, E and omega-3 fatty acids, so if you have never eaten an egg from a hen raised on sunshine, bugs and grass, then you are in for quite a treat.
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