Blood and White Stuff In Eggs

This blog is in answer to my Daughter-in-law's question about the things that she found inside her Grandmother's farm fresh eggs.

A chalaza is a white threadlike structure in an egg which helps to keep the yolk in place inside the shell, like an anchor. Sometimes, there are two of these visible on opposite sides, other times only one is visible. Over time this rope can get twisted as the yolk moves around inside the shell, making it look thick and bumpy.

The chalaza is perfectly safe to eat, although it can be removed if you wish. The more visible the chalaza is, the fresher the egg. This is why they are not very noticeable in store bought eggs. If you are reading this post without ever getting eggs fresh from the farm, you probably don't even know what I am talking about because you have never seen one.

Blood Spots or Meat Spots that are sometimes found in eggs are caused by ruptured blood vessels during the formation of the egg.

Candling methods can reveal blood spots in eggs, if you wish to go to the trouble. However, as the egg ages the yolk takes up water from the albumen and dilutes the blood spot making it vanish, so blood spots actually indicate that the egg is super fresh. Again, this is the main reason that these meat spots, like the chalaza are not normally found in store bought eggs. Eggs with these spots are perfectly fine to eat or the spot can be removed with the tip of a knife.

Finding chalaza or meat spots in your eggs do not reflect the quality of the eggs. They only tell you that your eggs are fresh. The color of the yolks are the real test of quality. The lighter the yolk the less nutritional value.

Culture

I know that you who know me well would never guess that I am actually a cultured person. You think that I never leave the farm and that my best friend is a billy goat.

While I may be a little eccentric and prefer the outdoors, horses, dogs, goats and chickens to crowds of people and parties. I do have a artistic side. I can be thoughtful and philosophical. I love a challenging exchange of ideas and debate.

Why, just tonight I changed my clothes, washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, polished my Crocs, then went out to dinner and to the Theatre. It wasn't one of them movin' picture shows either, this was honest to goodness Theater, with a stage, curtains, actors and padded theater seats.

It weren't no Church or School program with little kids dressed up like pumpkins, snowflakes or shepherds. It was real live Theater and it was opening night and I had a front row seat in a nearly full house.

I can offer witnesses, if you don't believe me, my daughter-in-law and some other people from our Church went with us. My daughter-in-law and I left our uncultured husbands at home. She did take the time to call her uncultured husband to check on him and all he could do was gripe about the pizza that she had ordered him not arriving.

He gave her a lecture about having her cell phone shut off in an emergency situation like this. She called the offending pizza place who had written down the wrong address, they made him a new pizza and delivered it at no charge, so I don't know why he was so grumpy. It must come from his Dad's side of the family.

Writer's Block

I am trying to overcome this current round to writer's block, I have been struggling to think of anything to blog about. Pain is about all that I can think about right now. I don't really want to dwell on it but it continues to demand most of my attention.

My eldest Son and his family were here last night, he is a great inspiration, he is just a little off on the wrong side of normal. He has a great sense of humor and when he is around or when I am on the phone with him, he will bring up some odd fact or warped childhood memory that he says that I should blog about. The problem is that my aged mind can't recall what it was that he suggested when I have the time to sit down and blog.

During the course of conversation last night, my DH said something very irritating to me, I can't remember what, but I did threaten to divorce him. My Daughter-in-law jumped right in there and suggested that we both get divorced and we would go somewhere together. You see, I have this strange family, I love both of my Daugher-in-laws. I admire their fortitude for staying married to my Sons. It can't be easy, they are too much like their Father.

Happy Independence Day! Hopefully it won't rain out the fireworks like it did last year. We had a gully washer here last night, the barn is flooded again. We don't do much on the 4th of July if we can help it, this is the first day that my Husband has had off for weeks. So that means that he is going to have to catch up on all of the work that has piled up around here.

He works six days a week and we go to Church twice on Sundays, so it makes it hard to mow grass and bush hog pastures, not to mention trimming 156 feet that belong to horses and goats around here.

We do have a very accommodating neighbor who spends tons of money on fireworks every year. All we have to do is drive to the top of the hill to watch a fireworks display that rivals what they have in the nearest town. We don't have to fight traffic or crowds of people, although the word is getting out and we are starting to get lots of visitors to our neighborhood on the 4th.

The thing that makes it really nice is that we live in a valley, so with that valley behind us, we get a real good stereo with echo affect, it is like wrap-around sound. All of our horses are bomb proof, they stand at the top of the hill every year and watch the show with us, they love it.

I am a little worried about Angel though, it will be her first 4th of July because she was born at the end of July last year. She gets very nervous about loud sounds, but she is getting better. The first time we shot a gun around her, she ran off and didn't come back until the next day. We and our neighbors have shot several times since then and she doesn't like it but she doesn't run off. Tonight might cure her completely.