Eggs are certainly very dear this year. The explanations for why grocery store eggs cost almost twice as much as they did in spring 2022 are as logistical (widespread avian flu outbreaks and lingering pandemic supply chain issues) as they are economical (overall inflation and probable price gouging). At press time, one large egg from away sold in Maine grocery stores cost between 30 and 70 cents, depending upon the conditions in which the chickens who laid them were kept.
Meanwhile, the price of eggs produced by Maine farmers and sold directly to consumers here held steady by comparison, ranging between 41 and 58 cents each for conventionally raised and certified organic ones, respectively. Given that local eggs are fresher, buying them keeps dollars circulating within the local food economy, and the price is on par with trucked-in options, we turned to chicken keeper, food writer, and Maine resident Lisa Steele for two unusual ways to help readers savor local eggs over time: pickling and curing the yolks. Both recipes come from Steele’s book The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook: Over 100 Fabulous Recipes to Use Eggs in Unexpected Ways, published by Harper Horizon, an imprint of HarperCollins, in 2022.
