Brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are...

I'm about to make a statement I never thought I would make: Local eggs are amazing. Groom came home last night with about half a dozen eggs that he got from a friend who keeps chickens. (I just discovered they came from our friend Kate! Hi Kate!)

Over the years, we've had plenty of friends who have kept chickens and Groom always extols the virtues of local eggs. I, on the other hand, have always made the pickle face whenever the topic has come up.

They're covered in poop. They're covered in hay. Chickens are gross and smelly. People who keep chickens tend to be really smug--sorry, but...come on...it's true. Then I started buying eggs at the farmers market. And, today, I boiled up a couple of those smelly, poopy, hay-covered eggs for lunch and huzzah! I am reborn! I'm a true convert!

squishy pile of delishy

Local eggs have a better, more solid yolk with the most extraordinary orange colors. Local eggs have really viscous whites that taste almost like cheese. And, here's the smug part: Local eggs tend to come from happy chickens who have a pretty nice life, not all caged or boxed up. Did you know "cage-free" chicken doesn't mean anything other than no cages are used? So, the poor bastards can be crated or crowded or just as miserable as the caged chickens without their little beaks. As much as I love the language workaround and the PR spin, that's just annoying. Poor little stinky poopy gross chickens.

For lunch today, I ate two delicious hard-boiled eggs with a little balsamic accompanied by local asparagus that I overcooked so I mixed it all up with local cucumbers and an avocado--all combined into a squishy pile of yummy. My mouth seriously thinks it just had a grilled cheese sandwich. Thanks avocado and local eggs!

Last night for local eats, we went to The Lobster House in Phippsburg where a local singer/songwriter Peter Alexander was playing. I went to his website, thought it sounded like fun--granted, I was halfway through a stiff rum and tonic at the time. The Lobster House is just a little roadside place but I noticed they're positioning themselves as a music spot. I so much wanted it to be like a speakeasy by the river in the 1920s.

Let me set it straight. I'm not a big fan of eating dinner while someone sings into a microphone. I love love love live and local music, but during happy hour and over dinner? I like to chat and hang out with my friends. But if it's original music, I'm more interested. I don't need to hear another cover of Bob Marley's Redemption Song. Last night, however, I was so pleased to hear this guy cover Lead Belly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night, a song commonly associated with Nirvana, that I was reconsidering my thoughts about listening to cover music over dinner. And that's when the singer immediately broke into a rendition of this.

Sooo. I'm back to disliking live cover music while I eat my supper.

But that egg today? That was pretty damn good.