Get Your Duck Eggs!

Waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. That’s what we did for 4 months. We thought they would never lay an egg. Perhaps they’re all male? Maybe they’re hiding the eggs? Maybe they’re unhappy? Of course, we thought it was something we were doing wrong, until one chilly pre-dawn morning, I crept, headlamp, coveralls, boots and all, into their nesting area and found not one, not two, but three golden eggs! Okay, they were actually white, but they were golden to us! Our girls were just young-- not unhappy, not undernourished, and certainly not males.

            When we rushed them inside to sample the new goodies and tapped one on the edge of the pan, nothing happened.  I gave it a few more good whacks, and finally got a crack thick enough to dig my finger in to pull the shell apart. Those are some tough shells. If you’ve tried our chicken eggs, you know those are tough to crack, but these will give you a workout! The reason they’re so tough is that the fresher an egg is, especially a duck egg, the thicker the inner membrane (that whitish part that sticks to the inside of the shell) is. Our ducks are also very healthy and happy, which strengthens the shell.

            But what do you do with a duck egg? Scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, over medium, over hard, poached, hard boiled, coddled, omleted, benedicted, merengued, etc. Anything you can do with a chicken egg, you can do with a duck egg. But wait, there’s more! Because of the higher albuminous protein content of a duck egg (bet you didn’t think you’d get a science lesson today!), they can take your baking to a whole new level. Literally. The extra protein offers more structure to your baked goods, creating a fluffier and loftier goody. From sweet to savory baked foods, duck eggs win hands down. How does a quiche (with Farm Girl jalapeno sausage), paired with a slice of homemade angel food cake sound tonight? Or custard. Or pound cake. Or cupcakes. The possibilities are endless.