Eggs at the Farmers Market [SF, Anywhere]

Who has the best eggs at the market these days? I’m looking deep orange hue yolks.

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While I get eggs from FMs a lot, I’ve found Vital Farms or the Pasture Raised from TJ’s (which I think are actually VF) to have the best deep orange hue yolks. For instance, Pasture Raised (the ones with the extra black labeling) from TJ’s on the left, compared the the ones from the FM (forget the name of the farm) on the right:

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I don’t know who has the best, but what do you like about that color? It’s striking, but isn’t it about the feed?

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Nice for making fresh pasta. In Italy they sell eggs for pasta with extra yellow yolks.

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I like Heritage eggs by Happy Eggs. Lovely amber yolks, excellent eggy flavor.

We have access to pampered eggs from a neighbor in the country. I’m grateful for their generosity, but these eggs don’t compare to Heritage.

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I used to think that the color of yolks was the end all be all of eggs.

But nowadays, I know better.

Yolk color is important but it is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for quality eggs.

Pasture raised eggs, the gold standard, don’t always have the most golden amber rich colored yolks (as your FM eggs demonstrate).

For me it comes down to one thing, taste. Ceteris paribus of course. A chicken fed on live feed, like worms, insects, seeds, and what-not, will have yolks that taste better than a chicken fed on grain alone.

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We found a vendor at the Sunday market in Fremont that sells unwashed, pasture-raised eggs. Either $10 or $12/dozen–can’t remember.

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Grocery Outlet in Alameda are now selling blue and brown heirloom eggs, size medium, grade A. $4.99 if I recall. They were tasty and shell color is interesting but not sure if they tasted much different. Two medium are about the size of a large or XL egg.

The color of egg yolks use to be a standard or way to know about chicken diet, like worms, grubs and stuff. But like farmed salmon, you can change the feed to change the color. Taste might be different but I don’t think there’s much difference nutritionally.

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I prefer really dark yolks too, I buy 365 PASTEURIZED Eggs from Whole Foods, a bit under $5 per dozen.

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One little quibble: I can’t understand why the large 365 eggs are not all the same size in the carton.

Woooo yes thats exactly what I’m looking for. Thanks for the heads up!

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My intention is to cure the egg yolks and use them shaved as a garnish on a salad.

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Pretty much. If it’s on a vegetarian feed, you can manipulate the color of the yolks by a diet rich in plants that have the orange color-causing pigments.

As far as taste? Serious Eats did a very eye-opening taste test. Spoiler: We eat with our eyes as well.

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Over the years, I’ve tried just about every vendors who sell eggs in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale. What I’ve found is none of them we have there are able to maintain that consistency in flavor, color, etc. There used to be a vendor who specializes in asparagus and for a period of time they got excellent pastured eggs, until they decided to expand, and the egg quality suffered. And then they just gave up producing because the economics didn’t work out for them.

Two weeks ago I tried eggs from Kite Hawk Farms. They were very very good. Not deep orange, however. The color is a function of the chicken’s diet. You can get them from the Urban Edge Farm store in Brentwood. I don’t know where else they sell them.

There is an egg brand in Grocery Outlet that has deep orange yolk, consistently for every egg, to the point that the yolks look kinda weird. But the eggs are pretty average in flavor.

If you want decent cheap pastured, there’s always TJ. The non-organic pastured is better than the organic pastured.

Yes. I’ve seen that! I’ve seen almost red.

This is an old article

“However, in recent years, customers have been asking for even darker shades. While Canadians prefer lemon yellow, many countries, such as Japan, have been moving toward blood orange, and even red.”