Sustainable Eating | The Egg Moon

The Egg Moon

Eggs are an ancient icon of spring, rebirth and renewal. In many sacred stories they symbolize wholeness and completeness, often serving as metaphors for the universe. Many diverse ancient cultures had a sacred story in which Creation was born from a cosmic egg.

It is no accident then that the Egg Moon comes in the spring. On old-fashioned farms, the hens start producing more eggs at this time of year when the days get longer and warmer. Chickens respond to longer days with increased laying; it is part of their natural cycle. Light stimulates hens' pituitary gland to produce a hormone that stimulates their ovaries to produce eggs. So spring signaled the return of eggs to the farmhouse diet.

Shopping in the grocery store, where eggs are plentiful year-round, this seasonal pattern is not evident. Factory-farming of eggs maximizes production by artificially lighting the egg factory, sometimes twenty-four hours a day, tricking the hens' bodies into thinking it's always summer. Antibiotics stimulate production even further — as if to make the Egg Moon last all year.

But, if you buy eggs directly from farmers at a farmers market, you will note an increased abundance of eggs around this time of year. You might also see goose and duck eggs, and the lovely, pale-blue Araucana eggs. One farmer I know says that all the geese in the area start laying their first springtime eggs at the same time, as if a secret code was passed around letting them know that laying time had come.

Archaeologists have postulated that humans domesticated chickens around 3200 BCE in India from a wild jungle fowl, Gallus gallus, and that this new species spread rapidly from there to other parts of the world. But prehistoric humans, and perhaps even prehuman hominids, were collecting and eating wild eggs many millennia before that.

So, the answer to the old question, �Which came first, the chicken or the egg?� is obviously the egg. Not only do few of the ancient stories mention chickens, but also we know from science that eggs were part of Creation long before chickens were, or even their wild ancestors.

Some historians believe that eggs were one of humanity's very first foods — before game, and right after water and salt. This would make sense, as eggs are a complete animal food that can be eaten raw without any preparation and without the need for weapons, stalking, or any of the other tools or skills of the hunter. Wild carnivores and omnivores will eat eggs if they find them, and we certainly did the same. It wouldn't have taken much for us to realize that it was worth doing a little extra work to look for them, and so wild eggs became a prized source of nutrition for hunter-gatherer societies around the world.

Nor did we limit ourselves to birds' eggs. Human communities have eaten almost any kind of egg they could get their hands on, including those of reptiles and fish. Wild eggs provided a reliable and important source of nutrition for hunter-gatherer societies and small agrarian communities. Consequently, as populations grew, wild eggs were often over-harvested. In many places, regulations now control or prohibit collection of wild eggs from birds, reptiles and fish to ensure the survival of the species. Thus, the domesticated chicken that has come to be a worldwide source for eggs in human diets.

Over the course of the past five thousand years, chickens have become an essential part of agricultural systems in temperate areas throughout the world. The chicken has been bred to be a highly productive component of small-scale, subsistence farms and local food systems. A chicken will lay between one and two eggs per day, about as many eggs as one person will eat. Chickens need space, but not as large an amount of pasture as a cow or other large mammals require. With a small coop and a bit of fenced-in yard, a chicken is content. Even when given free range, chickens do not stray far from their homes.

An egg that comes from a pastured chicken is a nutritional powerhouse, rich in almost every nutrient the body needs. This makes sense when we realize that it was designed by nature to contain all the nutrition necessary to create a baby bird — making the egg one of nature's most perfect whole foods. It should come as no surprise that when chickens are raised in confinement and denied their natural diet of bugs and grubs, grasses and grains, their eggs are much less nutrient-dense. Factory eggs are notably lacking in omega-3 and other fatty acids that are crucial for brain development. There is no substitute for a truly free-range, farm-fresh egg.

The egg is the essence of simple living — nature's original fast food. My kitchen would be bereft without them. I could not whip up frittatas for a quick supper as I often do, or soft-boil, fry, or scramble them for a quick breakfast with toast. I couldn't make the sauces that make so many other dishes delicious. My cooking would be impoverished indeed.

So to me, the Egg Moon is truly a cause for celebration: spring is here; the world is renewed; there are eggs in my farmers market basket! May we honor the chicken by providing her with the simple things she needs to thrive: access to sunlight, fresh air, shelter, and a bit of pasture. And may we all appreciate the simple but profound and timeless gift of food that can be found nestled in the straw of her laying box: the egg.

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