Have you bought eggs lately?

[catmandu57]

I did this week, the last time was in August I paid.79 for a dozen jumbos, Wednesday I paid 1.93 for the same thing. Either we're using all the chicken feed for fuel, or we're slaughtering too many chickens for meat. Well, that and inflation, my grocery cart keeps shrinking and the total I spend is going up.

[rodeodance]

1. my aunt says corn fed has doubled in price last 2 months-she has a

hobby farm.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. Corn is more expensive because is is bieng used to produce ethanol

[tabasco]

89. Drought has a lot to do with this.

A farmer in WV told me the yield was 50% of normal this year, due to drought.

[daninthemoon]

2. I blame buffalo wild wings. Anyone know what theheck they do with

the rest of all those chickens if we're just eating the wings now?

[Bassic]

18. I _hope_ they use the rest to sell breasts and drumsticks. nt

[daninthemoon]

24. Yeah, but I don't know if the numbers add up, unless the wings used

to be scrap or dog food or hot dogs. We're eating tons more wings now, and they're smaller than the other parts, so it takes more to make a meal, but as far as I know you still just get two per chicken.

[ClintonTyree]

39. The wings used to be a throw away item....

along with the feet, beaks etc. The one day an old Italian woman at the Anchor Bar (best wings in the world!) in Buffalo, NY rustled up a late-night snack for her son and a few of his friends. "Buffalo Wings" were born. You used to be able to buy wings for pennies a pound, no one wanted them. They've increased in price tremendously since the "Buffalo Wing" craze.

Believe me, NONE of a chicken is wasted in today's chicken industry. Everything is used; whether it's breasts, legs and thighs for diners, wings for yummy snacks or the feet, beaks etc. ground into meal to feed other chickens and cattle. As usual, it's all about the money so they use everything now, nothing is thrown away.

[daninthemoon]

58. Thanks. So I wonder if wild buffalo feet will be next ?

[Richard Steele]

81. ...

[daninthemoon]

84. I want a franchise.

[Richard Steele]

90. You should start one. You've already got a great name for it.

"Daninthemoon's" isn't any sillier than "Appleby's",
and it's WAAAAY better than that "T.J. Fudrucker" nonsense.

And why not chicken feet? Billions of folks in Asia already
consider them a delicacy.

Hell, I thought the whole chicken WINGS idea was stupid
the first time I encountered it, 25 years ago:
"Wings? There's no meat on a WING! That's the dumbest damn
menu item I've ever heard of!"
Now, they're a multi-billion-dollar-a-year cultural ICON.

So FEET isn't silly, it just hasn't caught on yet. KnowhutImean?

[TalkingDog]

93. I heard a segment on NPR trying to convice "us" that eating Jelly Fish

is the next big thing. The reporter actually said it: "Americans won't be eating fish anymore....this is delicious....."

My first thought...Oh crap, all the fresh water from the melting glaciers is killing the already over-fished ocean populations.

That's what this administration has done to me. Every word I hear from the media gets translated from New Speak into the most sinster possibility.

Yes, paranoid. But if you keep poking me with a live cattle prod, see if I don't jump next time you move toward me.


My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[Igel]

70. Back in the '80s the restaurant I worked for

used to collect the wings--they'd cook the thighs and breasts, but the wings were set aside.

Then we'd boil them. The broth would go to make soup. Whoever didn't have anything to do would get the glorious job of taking the meat off the wings. We'd wind up with a fairly large pile of meat and it would go into making various things that required cooked chicken.

And I still get vaguely nauseous when I smell boiling chicken or have to eat minched boiled chicken. A lot of Mexican restaurants seem to use boiled, shredded chicken in their food. Blech.

[Didereaux]

78. Two seperate production lines...

There are chickens produced for meat(the tender kind you wimps prefer nowadays), and then their are chickens produced to lay eggs. The latter have been bred to convert most of their feed into eggs, and the former are now bred such that most of the feed goes to high breast meat and they can barely even walk by the time they reach kill 'em stage. As for the egg producers? They last about two years on average and their carcasses go into Campbells soup, ground chicken and other highly processed products. They used to be known as 'stewing hens'.

Now THAT ought to be far more than you ever wanted to know about chickens! heh

[Avalux]

3. Food is becoming very expensive. No one talks about it.

The report for this quarter was rosy; I heard we've headed off a recession and the number of jobless has decreased. Our government would have us believe everything is wonderful; I think they just make shit up.

I've been shopping in the same grocery store and have bought the same items consistently over the past few years; what used to cost me 80 bucks or so for a week now costs well over 100.

[catmandu57]

I wish someone would do a true inflation analysis

When you take out food and fuel it's like living in fairyland.

[mainegreen]

35. Here you go

http://www.safehaven.ca/article-1942.htm
or
http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs?

The horror:

36 Years of Real US Economic Growth

 

Official CPI Rate

Freebuck.com Rate

Real Economic Growth (GDP)

139%

54%

Per Capita Real Economic Growth (GDP)

62%

3%

Per Worker Real Economic Growth (GDP)

25%

-19%

Real Wages and Salaries Growth

108%

34%

Per Capita Real Wage Growth

40%

-9%

Per Worker Real Wage Growth

9%

-30%

W/inflation around 6-7%

[mainegreen]

40. Or even better, try these

from http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs/data

Horrifyingly evil:


Bad news:


Ooooh, 10%? Awesome!

[catmandu57]

52. Very interesting

Thank you.

[Sal Minella]

6. Same here (in Iowa) -- I bought $30 worth of groceries and had to pay $50.

[H2O Man]

15. I guess so.

I went shopping today, and spent over $200. I told the lady at the check-out counter that I felt like I was paying to feed a small country. She said that she expects people to start complaining more, because the jumps in prices is becoming outrageous.

[shanti]

80. i used to pay

99 cents (at the 99 cent store) for a quart of milk. of course they can't raise the price, so guess what they did last week? 99 cents gets ya 2 pints now!

[NotGivingUp]

82. 2 pints = 1 quart ! n/t

[shanti]

99. sorry

it would be just a pint then! $1 a pint for milk now.....*smh*

[Warpy]

4. Almost four bucks a dozen for free range eggs here.

I've started using powdered eggs in cooking and baking. It's funny how a more highly processed food turns out to be cheaper in the long run than the natural food, but that's how it's going.

Part of the reason eggs are more expensive is energy cost. It costs to run feeder belts, it costs to keep the temperature optimum, it costs to keep lights on a timer so hens will be fooled into laying year round, it costs to gather, sort and grade, and it costs to chill and transport. Plus, there is the inevitable cost when fresh foods pass their use by date.

Back in the 70s, war inflation plus OPEC inflation were felt in food costs, first. Eventually the inflation found its way through the whole economy.

[catmandu57]

9. We live in chicken country almost

There's plenty around here i'll have to find someone with a farm.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

94. Look in news paper of the closest rural community to you.

If it's like here you can find fresh eggs, homemade cheese, produce and even small weekend farmers markets advertised.

Get to know the people before you start buying from them. Some claim to be organic when they're not. It's pretty easy to separate the wheat from the chaff if you ask them the right questions though.

[yewberry]

11. I saw them for $5.19 at Safeway yesterday.

Free range organic eggs from Horizon. I don't know how people can afford to buy that stuff.

[BOSSHOG]

5. One of my wife's coworkers

has several laying hens and he is kind enough to keep us in good supply of eggs. Food Prices have been inching up. Diane Rehm had an hour of that subject earlier this week.

[radfringe]

7. no we get them free

from a friend who has free-range chickens...

toooo many eggs and not enough omelets...

[snappyturtle]

62. Us too! We just got our chicks in March and are inundated with

eggs! Gorgeous green and brown ones....wish you all could stop by and we'd give em' to you if you promise to save cartons for us! Raising chickens has been the one thing we've done at the right time, for once! They're like little dogs....they come a runnin' for veggie scraps!

[Xithras]

8. I'm looking at putting up a coop.

I have the land for it, and already grow a large amount of my own food in a quarter acre garden (at what point does a large garden become a small farm?)

Building a coop and raising my own chickens would be a snap, but I'm still trying to figure out some of the other costs. Like, how much does a chicken eat in a day and how many eggs do they lay? I need to factor in corn costs to try and figure out how much it would actually cost me to raise my own chickens.

[MadMaddie]

13. I think you have the right idea..

more Americans need to start thinking along these lines.

[catmandu57]

14. It's a lot of work

and filthy at that. I used to help an old woman with her chickens, feeding and cleaning out the coop, by the time I was finished there wasn't enough hot water to get the smell off.

[SoCalDem]

16. If you can keep them safe, they are natural born wanderers and feed themselves

on bugs they find for themselves.. then just supplement them with chicken feed..

My friend raised ducks & chickens and they cost her very little.. keeping them safe from coyotes & wolves was her big problem :cry:

[daninthemoon]

28. Just curious. I've got three fairly stupid dogs. Any chance they can

be trained to NOT kill any chickens? It's the only thing stopping me from giving it a try. Anybody?

[MissB]

74. I have a herding dog.

An Aussie. She is absolutely terrified of the chickens.

Chickens run in a pack. I raised mine from day old chicks - so I had to keep them safe until they were big enough to fend for themselves. They spent time in the dog's space (inside porch) in a dog-proof (and cat-proof) box so she got to know them well as they were growing up.

Once they get to be full sized, they're pretty intimidating. She had no desire to round them up. I've had a stray cat take after the chickens and he learned pretty damned quick that he was going to lose. They ganged up on him and they still chase him as a pack whenever they see him.

I think it depends on your dogs. If they're bird dogs, I'd probably give the chickens a pass. I have a large side yard that is divided into a dog run and a chicken run. The dog can't get into where the chickens are, but the chickens are free to fly out and even check out the dog run.

A friend that has a farm has about 3 dozen chickens and two dogs. One of her dogs would hunt them if given the chance, so she keeps him penned up when the chickens are let out. Her chickens don't fly over their fence - they wait to be let out. I think mine might be a bit odd in that respect - they have no consideration for fences.

You don't have to let the chickens roam freely either. Chicken wire and the metal posts are fairly inexpensive and can be used to pen them in.

[Xithras]

55. Around here the only predators are feral cats & dogs, and the rare fox.

Wild foxes are almost extinct in this area though, so they're only a minor concern.

[Mojorabbit]

25. I have four chickens

and get around 2 dozen eggs a week. The price of feed has really increased but mine get lots of scraps and stuff from the garden. I enjoy them. They make me smile they are so goofy.

[kestrel91316]

44. If you have enough land to grow your own corn and wheat to

feed, you won't need to buy much feed at all. If not, the eggs you don't need can be sold to neighbors to underwrite your feed costs.

Everybody who has room for chickens should be raising them these days. Hard times are coming.

[Xithras]

57. My grandfather used to raise and eat rabbits.

A pasttime held over from the Great Depression, when raising (and selling for 25 cents a head) rabbits was the only way to keep yourself fed. Hopefully we'll never get back to that point.

I have about 1.5 acres of useable land at the moment. My actual property is larger than that, but I live along a river and a small stretch of it is forested, and another chunk is marshy and useless for growing anything but rice and weeds. I don't care how hungry I get, I don't think I could brink myself to cut those beautiful 120 year old oak trees just to make more farmland (draining my mosquito pit is another story, and would gain me about another half of an acre).

Theoretically I could turn most, or even all, of it into cropland, but I'd have to lose the horses :(

[kestrel91316]

65. You can grow corn and wheat on a very small scale.

Harvesting by hand is fun. I grew 9 sq ft of hard red winter wheat in my garden a few years back, lol. Made a couple of loaves of really great bread......

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1978-01-01/You-Can-Raise-Grains-Right-in-Your-Own-Garden.aspx
"....the use of whole grains directly in your own diet is only half the reason for growing them. The other half, just as important I think, is to assure yourself and your family an economical, steady supply of milk, meat, and eggs, and possibly cheese, wool, or other animal products you need or desire as part of your goal of homegrown security. If you have to go to the store to buy the grains you need for your livestock, your own home. raised milk, meat, and eggs will cost you nearly as much as if you bought them from a farmer or the store. Furthermore, if you have to buy your grains in the marketplace, you may have to settle for less nutritional quality than what you could grow on rich organic soil and dry by natural methods. Protein and trace element content vary significantly with the variety of grain and where and how it is grown. Your eggs, milk, and meat can't be any better than the grains that produce them.

snip

".....There's another advantage to growing grains, a dimension you don't usually find in fruits and vegetables. Grain plants often give you other important products besides the grain. Wheat and oats and barley give you straw ... th e dried stalks left after the grain is threshed. Straw makes excellent bedding for animals and mulch for the garden. It can be woven into baskets, too.. Corn leaves dried or silaged are good roughage feed for cows. Cornhusks can be plaited into strong rope, fashioned into dolls and decorations, or used to fill a mattress in a pinch. Cane sorghum makes good syrup ... buckwheat and clovers provide the bees with abundant honey. And — not to be outdone — oats provide the hulls that the Rolls-Royce people used to use to polish the cylinder sleeves of their expensive cars. Maybe they still do.

snip

"......you don't need much space to raise at least some grains. A normal yield of wheat grown organically would be about 40 bushels to the acre. So you'd need only 1/40 acre to produce a bushel. That would be a plot of ground 10 feet wide by about 109 feet long. A really good wheat grower with a little luck could get a bushel from a plot half that size. Wheat yields have been recorded as high as 80 bushels per acre and even higher

snip

"......The amount of grain necessary to support a few livestock is not large either. You need about 12 bushels of corn to fatten a feeder pig to butchering weight. A ewe and her lamb need approximately a bushel of grain a year, if pasture and hay are abundant. A hen needs about a bushel a year, a milk cow — along with hay and pasture — perhaps five or six bushels, and a beef steer, a little more than that. In other words, an acre could easily fill the grain requirements for one pig, one milk cow, one beef steer, and 30 chickens. A top grower might provide the grain for more than twice that number of animals on an acre.

[Mrs. Overall]

46. I just did it this summer! We built a small coop (6 feet by 6 feet) and put up a very strong

fence because we have coyotes and foxes. I have five chickens which should be old enough to begin laying in November. I am really not sure how much money you will save, since to build the coop and feeding the chickens will cost you some. Our chickens eat less feed if I give them lots of kitchen scraps and let them roam in my fenced in veggie garden which is overgrown with weeds. It was a surprise to me how much chickens seem to love dandelions and other plants. They also eats tons of bugs.
So far, it hasn't been terribly time consuming and the birds are such a joy to watch and interact with. I'm not sure how much money I'll save as far as eggs, but these little guys have become pets, so it doesn't really matter.

I love organic eggs, but they have risen to $4.30 a dozen, which is outrageous.

[Xithras]

59. Chickens eat kitchen scraps?

I've had minimal exposure to chickens, so forgive the newbie question. My understanding was that chickens pretty much only eat seeds and bugs. That means feeding them a grain like corn, or letting them run wild in the hopes that the local bug population will support them.

What will they eat from the kitchen?

[kineneb]

66. chickens will eat amazing things

including dead opossums (uck), and goodies from the kitchen. They like greenery, vegetables, breads, etc. Avoid giving them garlic or onions.

My pet chicken is found of all sorts of things- Sun Chips, peanuts, cashews, pastry, diantha plants, basil leaves, the Irish moss in our new patio, wild bird seed, insects, and even small tree frogs:-( .

The one thing she doesn't like is... dried corn. Go figure.

The nifty thing about chicken scratch or wild bird seed- if you throw it on the ground and water it, it grows and makes more seed.

[MissB]

72. I highly recommend this book:

Keep Chickens! Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces by Barbara Kilarski. Small paperback, great little book for telling you all you didn't know but need to.

[Lisa]

92. the ones I used to look after for a friend, just adored spaghetti

They thought it was worms! They would toss the pieces into the air and scramble after them.

[MissB]

71. I posted down-thread.

I have three chickens on my property - half an acre. They wander freely, occaisonally going into the neighbors' yards and across the street (why did the chicken cross the road?.....)

I buy organic feed for my chickens, but I barely use any at all through the spring and into fall. They mostly forage for their own food. In fact, right now they're out front (I can see them from my office window), scratching the ground and looking for yummy things to eat. They love bugs and grass and weeds. I've had to fence in my garden, as they were really liking the plants in there. I throw out bread crusts and leftover oatmeal for them. They love bits and scraps - cottage cheese, watermelon, rice, seeds of any kind. I don't feed them meat, but otherwise I pretty much give them what is left on our plates. Corn cobs are a huge treat.

Chicken feed is cheap - I pay about $10 for 25 pounds, and that lasts a helluva long time. I go through it quicker if the squirrels are out in force. But basically, that is many months of feed. Oyster shell supplement is cheap too - I think it is about $2 for a small bag that lasts several months.

Mine lay an egg each a day, except when they're molting or when it starts getting darker. They need something like 14 hours of sunlight to produce eggs regularly and I don't put a light in their henhouse at all so the production tends to drop off to every other day in the winter months. But at the peak productions - summer - they're giving me 3 each a day for many months on end, and for a family of four that is wayyy too many eggs. I end up giving they away by the dozen. Every four days, I have a dozen eggs.

Hen houses can be fancy or not. Dh built a rather tall one from scratch using mostly lumber we had. It is like a tool shed with windows from the salvage store. It has siding on it that we had leftover from a house project. He built the paneled door out of scrap wood.

A friend has a more exposed hen house made out of 2x4s and chicken wire. I would think that would be a bit more exposed to predators like raccoons and such. She also doesn't have any laying boxes in her hen house - her chickens walk into her garage to lay eggs.

They're lovely creatures and they cost me a mere $0.60 each.

The cats leave them alone and the dog fears them. We had a hunting dog over here a few weeks ago and he chased them a bit, but by and large they're pretty aware of their surroundings. I think the raccoons in the neighborhood are just too damned lazy to try to get them.

[daninthemoon]

86. Thanks for the posts, Miss B. I just might do it.

[SmokingJacket]

75. Do it! It's easy and fun.

Good laying breeds lay an egg a day at full production, but that varies considerably throughout the year, and with the breed, and with the age of the hen. My flock of 13 hens and one rooster go through a bag of feed in about a month, and feed can cost anywhere from $11 to $25 a bag (the higher price is for organic). I free range them part of the day, but you can't do that in the winter where I live.

I think it's hard to save money if you're working on a small backyard scale, but it's really, really fun. It's like having pets who give you food. And the eggs are better: tastier, healthier, more nutritious, and more environmentally correct.

Oh, yeah, one of the main reasons I got mine was for the manure. Composted chicken manure makes awesome fertilizer.

[zabet]

10. Just got 4 dozen

from the local 'egg lady'. $1 a dozen.

edit: left one of these ' out

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. Ethanol

A lot more companies are producing ethanol. They are using corn to produce ethanol. This is driving up the price of corn. This drives up the cost of feeding chickens.

[SoCalDem]

19. Gee how odd.. When I brought this up years ago, people said I was a loony

Granted, I still may BE a loony..but there is only so much space to grow corn, and our whole food supply is corn-based.. It's not a stretch to see a problem..

If you grow corn , you will sell for the highest price you can get.. It's not personal..it's just business.

Coming soon, to a store near you...the $10 box of Kelloggs Corn Flakes :(

[catmandu57]

33. Loonys are worth more than dollars now

Be a proud loony:hi:

[ieoeja]

32. Why is everything else more expensive?

Why are non-corn related products more expensive?

I just went to the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) website, found monthly charts for Corn, Soybeans and Wheat dating back to 2005. And the charts look almost identical. Why is that?

Why did corn prices DROP when the Mississippi flood wiped out a substantial percentage of the crop?

Finally, corn prices today are substantially lower than they were in 1980. Not lower adjusted for inflation. Just lower. Period.

[frazzled]

38. This is the story I've heard, but ....

I'm always a little suspicious about these supply explanations. It may contribute somewhat.

I would add another factor that has no basis in real economics. Let's call it the "luxury handbag" theory. As you may have noticed, outrageously expensive women's handbags have been all the rage the last few years, and the prices keep getting higher and higher as hedge-fund wives seek ever upward for status, and don't mind paying $3,500 for a purse if it gives them bragging rights. But what we all notice happening is that "regular" handbags have gone up in price in response: if an expensive handbag costs $650, then a "moderate" deparatment-store purse can be hiked up to $180. Still can't afford it, but hey ...

The status of free-range or cage-free organic eggs has shot the price up to $4 and $5 a dozen--a price the wealthy don't mind paying at all. But now our old $0.89 eggs normal have become $2.29 in response: still cheaper than the fancy eggs. I honestly think a lot of this pricing is totally artificial in this way.

[catmandu57]

20. If I were a robber

I wouldn't fool with banks, gas stations and grocery stores that's where all the money is now.

[Cleita]

21. I believe because your food is transported by truck, the prices

are all going up because of the price of gas.

[AlCzervik]

22. $5.77 for free range eggs yesterday at Bel-air supermarket.

[kestrel91316]

47. What do you want for BH? Goes with the territory, lol.

[MadHound]

23. How many miles do those eggs travel to reach the store shelves?

How much energy does it take to produce those eggs?

Sadly, our modern, factory farm model of food production is energy intensive, and with rising energy prices, the price of all food is going up, up, up.

I would recommend that you search around for a local egg producer. Farmers markets, roadside stands, that sort of thing. Not only will your eggs be cheaper, but you will be promoting small farms and humane farming practices.

[AlCzervik]

26. i live in a state and a county with thousands of cows and milk prices are absurd.

same thing with eggs, i try and buy eggs from the guy that has a small farm a few miles from me but since his operation is small he doesn't always have eggs.

[kestrel91316]

50. Nevermind my prev post - I thought you were over the hill in BH, lol.

No farms anywhere NEAR there!

[AlCzervik]

51. hah BH! omg not even close! Norcal---it's like another state.

[Bitwit1234]

27. There is absolutely no excuse

We have enough land, enough farmers and we can plant and harvest. And it won't cost a fortune it just so happens the corporate monsters have figured out a way to gouge the American people again. And congress is letting them.

[catmandu57]

30. Our local paper did a piece on the corn harvest

they're saying the average yield was 150 bushels per acre, that's pretty good twenty years ago 100 bushels an acre was considered outstanding.

[Wilber_Stool]

29. Today.

$2.22 for jumbos in western NC.

[rox63]

31. Eggs haven't been .79 a dozen around here for several years

For a dozen regular jumbo eggs, we've been paying about $2.00 around here. Organic/free range are around $3-$4 a dozen. And this is at the cheaper supermarkets, not Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.

[rasputin1952]

34. $4.39 for a gallon of whole milk....

and yet millions of pounds of milk are dumped each day...:eyes:

[catmandu57]

56. The more the price goes up

the better it tastes, I'm drinking more milk than ever these days, like a hummer at the gas pump.

[rasputin1952]

64. ...

:D

[TygrBright]

36. $4 a dozen from my poultry farmer. But they're damn' fine eggs!

I have absolutely no compunction about using them raw when needed (which isn't often,) and the expense keeps our consumption moderate, as it should be when you're middle-aged and watching cholesterol.

$4 a dozen is a perfectly fair price reflecting the actual costs of my poultry farmer to raise our chickens in small flocks, ranging naturally and moving frequently, eating natural chicken diets (including bugs & stuff they scratch up for themselves) and maturing on a natural rather than artificially accelerated timeline.

That said, it's a lot of money. I have no problem with people going for the cheaper stuff because their budgets are tight, I'd just advise them to be damn' sure to cook those puppies hard as rocks. And maybe consider the advantages of eating fewer eggs, less often, but getting way better quality and nutritional content when you do eat them.

diffidently,
Bright

(ed. for speeling eror)

[spinbaby]

37. Check with your local feed stores

Ours often has local eggs for $1.25 a dozen. Size and color vary wildly but they're much better eggs than we get at the grocery store.

[porphyrian]

41. I think it has more to do with shipping costs than chickens. - n/t

[kestrel91316]

42. Eggs are $3-4 here in Los Angeles.

Quit whining. :P

[T Wolf]

43. As the shopper for my family, I can attest to the fact that most grocery

prices are way up. I really wonder how those families without two Masters-level workers can survive.

[muffin1]

45. It's really outrageous

Went to the store last night for a few items (used the little hand basket). That little basket was only 3/4 full and it cost $56.00! I confess I bought a couple of frozen dinners - "on sale", but the rest was bottom of the line coffee (folgers!), cheese, milk and the like. With prices like this, my dieting efforts are going to become a lot easier.

[sarcasmo]

48. The soup that we USED to buy went from 1.98 to 2.89.

Inflation has arrived. While we all loose money the cost of survival goes up.

[catmandu57]

54. Soup

It's made in huge vats, thousands of gallons at a time with little tiny pieces of meat and vegs they should be giving the stuff away.

[Scout]

49. we buy our eggs for $1 a dozen from a friend who raises chickens

we're lucky to know someone who can sell us fresh (as in just out of the chicken yesterday) eggs.

[rucky]

53. Our neighbor still sells them for $1 /doz.

Fresh from the chicken's you-know-what.

[demgurl]

60. I am lucky enough to buy at the farmer's market.

I buy 15 double yolk eggs for about a dollar and a half.

[CT_Progressive]

61. Which did you buy first, the chicken or the eggs?

what?
:)

[damntexdem]

63. They sound ova priced to me.

Sorry, couldn't help making the yolk.

[knight_of_the_star]

67. Excuse me sir

This is the Pun Police. We are placing you under arrest for two counts of aggravated abuse of poor puns. You have the right to remain silent. Any bad jokes you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to a comedian, if you cannot afford one a traffic school comic will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as have been read to you?

[Javaman]

68. I'm lucky. I get them from a friend for free...

when I get extra veggies I send them her way.

Previews of things to come.

[MissB]

69. I have my own backyard flock.

3 chickens, free range. I do buy organic feed for them, but they barely have any of it. They forage for bugs, eat grass and weeds. Each produces an egg a day and the eggs have the most vivid yellow/orange yolks you've ever seen.

[TalkingDog]

95. My "yellow" yolk story.

We get eggs from a fellow whose family runs a local chicken breeding place. (yes you can order from them: http://www.geocities.com/shookpoultry/)

3 bucks for 2.5 dozen eggs. And they have that vibrant yellow/orange yolk that makes store bought eggs taste like...well, EggBeaters or something.

One day I decided to make homemade vanilla custard. I pulled out my recipe book and, since I had never made custard from scratch, tried studiously to follow every direction to the absolute letter.

I laid out all the supplies, got my whisk, cracked and separated the yolk from white and as per directions began to beat the yolks until, "they become a creamy lemon yellow." Well, I whisked and beat and changed hands a couple of times and the damned things just wouldn't turn lemon yellow!!!

Finally I realized the problem and nearly went into apoplexy I was laughing so hard. They weren't going to EVER turn a creamy lemon yellow and I was just going to have to live with it.

Luckily the custard turned out fine. And tasted quite yummy with the Rumtopft liberally poured over it.

I still tell that story when I make custard. It always "cracks" me up.


My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[SmokingJacket]

73. Eggs ought to be more expensive.

Seriously -- they're SO much cheaper than practically anything else that is as nutritious. But keeping the price so extremely low forces farmers to cram as many chickens into a barn as possible in order to squeeze a profit out the hens. Think about it: at .07 an egg, and with each hen at maximum production laying an egg a day, a hen grosses a whopping .50 a week. Take out costs of feed and the carton and employees, and it's like nothing. The only way to make a profit this way is with HUGE barns packed with hens who live in cages and never see daylight. Plus, with those conditions you have to medicate the crap out of them to keep them healthy. BAD SCENE.

$2.00 is a sane price for eggs, considering a family rarely eats more than a carton a week, but for that you ought to be able to have local farm-fresh eggs. Unfortunately, the trendy green crowd (of whom I consider myself a sometime member) have driven the price of organic eggs to ridiculous extremes, like $5 a carton sometimes.

(Full disclosure: I raise free range chickens ;) )

Incidentally: we ARE using chicken feed -- corn -- for fuel.

I bitch and moan about the costs of groceries as much as anyone, but I really do think that eggs are a fantastic deal and that people should eat more of them.

[Nutmegger]

76. Milk too....

A half gallon use to cost me $2.30 a few months ago.

Now it's close to $3.00.

About 70 cents in just a matter of months?

[tammywammy]

77. Last night $1.79/dozen

[shanti]

79. EVERYTHING

seems to have gone up in the last 6 months or so. i usually buy my groceries from a discount market and have really seen this. i mean, across the board!

[Snarkturian Clone]

83. Sav-A-Lot

I started shopping at Sav-A-Lot in the philly area. The place used to suck big time 5 years ago but now they have name brands for next-to-nothing prices. I really like peanut butter and they have it for $1.64, which is 1/3 of what I pay elsewhere. I haven't bought eggs there lately but I'll check it out next time I go.

I could do a fucking commercial for this place though... if you live in the philly area, swallow your pride, ditch the whole foods and go to sav-a-lot. Lots of good prices and some sights and smells you won't find elsewhere.

[Roon]

85. Don't those chickens know there's a war going on? eom

[Zookeeper]

87. Milk, cheese, ice cream and....

things like frozen pizza and frozen juice have had price increases that are very noticeable to me.

I haven't bought eggs for a while, but, that's a tremendous increase in price!

[blonndee]

88. Yep, paid $3.88 for a dozen organic the other day.

I don't have that kind of money, but can't bring myself to buy the others. Besides, as a single person, a dozen eggs lasts me a long time. But what I paid was exactly $1 higher than about 6 months ago.

[Sparkly]

91. It's all the double yolks that freak me out.

Remember when those double-yolk eggs were rare? Now half or more of the eggs I get have two yolks. Is that about some fertility hormone thing?! :puke:

[Didereaux]

98. it's because....

The layers are being kept in production longer. The older the hen the more often the double yolked egg occurs. A blonde asked why there were two yolks in one of her eggs...the grocery store clerk apologized and told her that she must have accidently gotten a restauarant egg...thats the ones they use when you order 'two, sunnyside up!' arrrrgh
ducking & running

[dysfunctional press]

96. i don't do eggs all that often...

and i never bake.


so i hadn't noticed.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

97. $1.79/dz

today. Plain ole egg eggs, not organic