South Uist looks incredibly beautiful! And I love this idea of finding egg boxes from far, far away! Do they typically come in half dozens? Our egg cartons are usually by the dozen, and while some locals do sell eggs, I can’t say I’ve ever seen unattended eggs with an “honor system” for purchasing. Probably because we’re less honorable here?🤷🏻♀️
Only one word I had to look up this week--“smallholding.” I love that you spent time in the henhouse! Mine was the doghouse--well, wherever the dogs happened to hang out. My dad built them a grand doghouse which they refused to enter, staying under the house instead. Sometimes I would crawl under there with them--especially the one time there were lots of puppies under there.
I really enjoyed this piece, Rebecca. We've kept our ladies for decades, including a time when we live within the city limits and flocks were verboten. Today, we've got a dozen ladies. A great mix of Buff Orpingtons (identical, so all named "Ethyl"), a couple of Easter Eggers, and a couple of Olivers. Egg prodution has waned a bit, now that the days are shorter. But we do keep our friends and family in eggs during the summer. They are indeed humorous creatures, each with a distinct mode and attitude. I'll be posting a piece on our flock on Thanksgiving Day (US, November 24). Keep up with the hen reportage for us!
The deranged chicken sign is wonderful! Fresh eggs are amazing and I dream of having chickens someday, but we have so many foxes and coyotes here that I have to do some real planning beforehand. One of the things I love about living where I do is that my neighbors often have those honor boxes at the ends of their driveways with eggs, apples, whatever should someone want to buy them...
Nice story! As usual the scenery seems to have a calming effect. Your use of the words describing your visitor made me imagine it like I was really there. I laughed once you said the pickup was barrelling toward you. 🤣
There is no way the "honor system" would work around here. We have too many people. I think it would probably only work in rural areas.
There’s nothing like a batch of farm fresh eggs. One of the things I enjoy when we visit the local farmer’s market during our summer visits to the mountains. 🥚🥚🥚
Lovely post, and nice photos. I especially like the 'deranged' sign -- I take a lot of pics of funny signs myself. We now buy our eggs from a veggie box place, not least because in supermarkets you have to check that the eggs in a box labelled large really are large -- because some people swap in order to save money. Anyway, I highly recommend this advert from 1957: https://youtu.be/bGr5y2tNoqM
Beautiful writing, Rebecca. Very descriptive, nicely organized. I felt as if I were riding along with you in Uist. Your photo of the machair was the finest I have ever seen and I have to say it tweaked my heart a bit. I have traveled in Scotland many many times and sorely miss it. Then I felt the urge to go scramble some eggs for my breakfast and that is what I did. Thanks for the journey.
Great post! I’m not an egg fan myself (the whole quivering-reproductive-cell thing did me in about the time I turned 13 (yes, I’m sure there’s a Freudian explanation)) but I use them, cook them, fry them, etc for the family - and find it amazing that 2 x half dozens are cheaper than 1 dozen at my local supermarket (Waitrose)!
Love this! My grandpa had an egg farm and reading your post brought back so many memories! Yes those egg boxes (we called them egg cartons) were like gold! :)
While we have local farm egg purveyors around here, I’ve not seen this kind of network. (Our road stands here usually flog kindling for fire or vegetables; the odd one I’ve seen had honey and pies.) Such a fun read, really enjoyed reading it!
I loved the way you wrote this story about eggs! Procuring such fresh and very local eggs was one of the many delights I discovered when we moved to England from suburban California. In Devon we had eggs delivered weekly by a local egg 'farm', but like you said, if we forgot to ask for extras, we could just head into the surrounding fields and easily find some for sale. We have a local dairy with an unattended stand on the Island where we usually pick up our eggs now. And I loved the 'Deranged' sign.
Oh my goodness-that is amazing! So sad not to have known that when we were driving a couple times a month from Plymouth to the Isle of Wight. We passed quite close to that shop! Mmmm: Blue Vinny, lucky you. There's a good pub by that name not too far from there too.
South Uist looks incredibly beautiful! And I love this idea of finding egg boxes from far, far away! Do they typically come in half dozens? Our egg cartons are usually by the dozen, and while some locals do sell eggs, I can’t say I’ve ever seen unattended eggs with an “honor system” for purchasing. Probably because we’re less honorable here?🤷🏻♀️
Only one word I had to look up this week--“smallholding.” I love that you spent time in the henhouse! Mine was the doghouse--well, wherever the dogs happened to hang out. My dad built them a grand doghouse which they refused to enter, staying under the house instead. Sometimes I would crawl under there with them--especially the one time there were lots of puppies under there.
As a chicken-keeper, trust me, egg boxes are ALWAYS welcome and received with delight – when you gift eggs to people, you never get the boxes back 😂
Fun stuff Rebecca, and fun to see that you’ve got the local egg trade going round you as well. Did you see my “Egg Car” piece a while ago? You’ll laugh at the similarities. https://open.substack.com/pub/tompendergast/p/the-egg-car?r=ofba&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I really enjoyed this piece, Rebecca. We've kept our ladies for decades, including a time when we live within the city limits and flocks were verboten. Today, we've got a dozen ladies. A great mix of Buff Orpingtons (identical, so all named "Ethyl"), a couple of Easter Eggers, and a couple of Olivers. Egg prodution has waned a bit, now that the days are shorter. But we do keep our friends and family in eggs during the summer. They are indeed humorous creatures, each with a distinct mode and attitude. I'll be posting a piece on our flock on Thanksgiving Day (US, November 24). Keep up with the hen reportage for us!
The deranged chicken sign is wonderful! Fresh eggs are amazing and I dream of having chickens someday, but we have so many foxes and coyotes here that I have to do some real planning beforehand. One of the things I love about living where I do is that my neighbors often have those honor boxes at the ends of their driveways with eggs, apples, whatever should someone want to buy them...
Nice story! As usual the scenery seems to have a calming effect. Your use of the words describing your visitor made me imagine it like I was really there. I laughed once you said the pickup was barrelling toward you. 🤣
There is no way the "honor system" would work around here. We have too many people. I think it would probably only work in rural areas.
There’s nothing like a batch of farm fresh eggs. One of the things I enjoy when we visit the local farmer’s market during our summer visits to the mountains. 🥚🥚🥚
Oh Rebecca, I wish I could share your love of eggs. Great reading though!
Lovely post, and nice photos. I especially like the 'deranged' sign -- I take a lot of pics of funny signs myself. We now buy our eggs from a veggie box place, not least because in supermarkets you have to check that the eggs in a box labelled large really are large -- because some people swap in order to save money. Anyway, I highly recommend this advert from 1957: https://youtu.be/bGr5y2tNoqM
Beautiful writing, Rebecca. Very descriptive, nicely organized. I felt as if I were riding along with you in Uist. Your photo of the machair was the finest I have ever seen and I have to say it tweaked my heart a bit. I have traveled in Scotland many many times and sorely miss it. Then I felt the urge to go scramble some eggs for my breakfast and that is what I did. Thanks for the journey.
Great post! I’m not an egg fan myself (the whole quivering-reproductive-cell thing did me in about the time I turned 13 (yes, I’m sure there’s a Freudian explanation)) but I use them, cook them, fry them, etc for the family - and find it amazing that 2 x half dozens are cheaper than 1 dozen at my local supermarket (Waitrose)!
Love this! My grandpa had an egg farm and reading your post brought back so many memories! Yes those egg boxes (we called them egg cartons) were like gold! :)
I’ve always dreamed of having an egg farm. Your post makes me want one even more!
While we have local farm egg purveyors around here, I’ve not seen this kind of network. (Our road stands here usually flog kindling for fire or vegetables; the odd one I’ve seen had honey and pies.) Such a fun read, really enjoyed reading it!
And those donkeys 😍
I loved the way you wrote this story about eggs! Procuring such fresh and very local eggs was one of the many delights I discovered when we moved to England from suburban California. In Devon we had eggs delivered weekly by a local egg 'farm', but like you said, if we forgot to ask for extras, we could just head into the surrounding fields and easily find some for sale. We have a local dairy with an unattended stand on the Island where we usually pick up our eggs now. And I loved the 'Deranged' sign.
Oh my goodness-that is amazing! So sad not to have known that when we were driving a couple times a month from Plymouth to the Isle of Wight. We passed quite close to that shop! Mmmm: Blue Vinny, lucky you. There's a good pub by that name not too far from there too.