(We Believe) The Egg Came First
March 2025
T.S. Eliot deemed April “the cruelest month of all,” but maybe he wasn’t familiar with mud season in the Hudson Valley. Having said that, we stand by the belief that every month and every season have beauty to offer and lessons to impart and this time of the year is no exception. And while the end of February / beginning of March usually marks mud season here, winter has shown no signs of relenting this time around.
To honor mud season, we had planned to get dirty and dive into the farming side of things. But since it’s such a dense topic, we’ll be spreading that out over a few issues (April/May/June). This edition will focus on something that has been weighing heavily on lots of our minds.
We need to address an elephant in the room — bird flu
If you haven’t heard about the latest round of Bird Flu, aka Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A (H5N1), then please move over and make space for us under that rock too! The key words with this virus are “highly” and “pathogenic.” The mortality rate for infected chickens is nearly 100% and has primarily been spread through wild birds, such as ducks and geese. The virus is present in feces and in secretions from the nose, mouth, and eyes of infected birds and is spread between infected and healthy birds through contact with contaminated equipment and materials, or by people carrying the virus on their shoes, clothes, and/or hands. If the virus is detected in a flock, the entire flock must be “depopulated,” a nice way of saying “euthanized.”
A newer variant is now endemic in cows and transmittable to cats as well as humans, although no human-to-human spread has been confirmed yet. We are also currently experiencing one of the worst seasonal flu outbreaks in 15 years, with experts raising the potential for the emergence of a more dangerous virus that combines bird flu and seasonal flu in a process called reassortment. As if this weren’t unsettling enough, the news comes amid a purge of experts at federal agencies, including employees who were responding to the outbreak at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Agriculture, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),[1] and on the heels of Trump withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). Trying to navigate these challenges amidst a lack of transparency and access to reliable information is problematic, to say the least.
There have been cases of bird flu in our county and adjacent counties and, although the majority of cases in the country have been in large-scale industrial poultry facilities, it is now also impacting many smaller farms and backyard poultry keepers. We are staying as up to date as possible, while trying not to freak out, and we continue to practice biosecurity and safety measures within our control. However, we are committed to raising our chickens and ducks in open spaces, with access to sunlight and fresh air, so there is no realistic way to fully protect our flocks and our farm, which attracts local and migratory birds alike. We don’t foresee this virus going away anytime soon, and raising poultry becomes a riskier and riskier undertaking.
If you’re wondering how this all relates to the cost of eggs, there are several considerations. But the rising cost of eggs is only a symptom of a much larger problem. And it can mostly be distilled down to the fact that we as consumers are overly dependent on an industrialized food system. Commercial egg farms account for 85% of the eggs in this country. And even calling them farms is generous. They are massive facilities that can house up to 6 million birds!!! Putting aside the sheer ethics of it, is it possible to raise healthy birds in facilities housing millions of them? Industrial agriculture has created the perfect laboratory for creating new and devastating viruses.
Then there is the human toll of our industrial food systems for the workers toiling in unsanitary conditions in non-unionized, often uninsured positions who might face termination or – in the case of undocumented immigrants – deportation for speaking up or seeking medical care. These people have little incentive to self-report illnesses like bird flu, which further creates an ideal landscape for the virus to spread undetected. And the health toll to humans eating products created in these miserable conditions? It isn’t good, and yet it forms the backbone of our national model, which favors efficiency and profit over everything else.
Factory farming continues to grow and “big agriculture donated nearly $200 million during the 2024 campaign, mostly to Republicans. Agribusiness also spent more than half a billion dollars to influence the farm bill that doles out the industry’s lucrative subsidies,” [2] mostly to large ranches and factory farms – none to small scale farms like ours. Furthermore, the egg production industry has consolidated over the last three decades. Cal-Maine Foods, which controls about a fifth of the egg market and sells to Walmart and other large retailers, along with four other large producers control roughly half of the egg market in the United States.[3] Should a handful of companies really be controlling the egg market in a country as vast as ours? Shouldn’t eggs be considered a local (and seasonal) product?
It’s depressing, we know. This is why growing your own food – even tending a small herb garden on your windowsill – is an act of rebellion. And there is nothing quite like growing your own vegetables - getting your hands in the soil, taking time to observe the small but intentional lives that make up our natural world, and reflecting on our place within it.
But back to the price of eggs, briefly. There is undoubtedly some profiteering and price gouging happening from the large producers. On a smaller scale, prices go up as farms and hatcheries lose their birds to illness and are then forced to rebuild their breeding stock. It impacts small farms like ours who look to hatcheries to replenish their flocks as they rotate older birds out. When we placed our order for chicks in January, the price for day old chicks had gone up by 50% in some cases. Which is why we want to become more and more self-sufficient here and why we would like to do more on-farm breeding. We invested in an egg incubator in 2023 which will allow us to control hatch dates and lessen our dependency on outside sources a little more.
We are very fortunate to live in a part of the country that supports its community farms. Farmers Markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) are abundant here. We recognize that it is not the norm in many places in the US and there is a lot of work to be done to make healthy, affordable food accessible to everyone. For those of you reading this blog (and thank you for doing so, as we get up on this soap box and get a little preachy!), you can make choices that help small farms, while also helping the planet and your health in the process.
sources: [1] “Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding,” The Guardian, Melody Schreiber, Feb 22, 2025
[2] “How will the bird flu affect the Trump presidency?” - The Guardian, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jan 29, 2025
[3] “Egg Prices Are Soaring. Bird Flu May Not Be the Only Culprit.”- The New York Times, Danielle Kaye and Julie Creswell, Feb 25, 2025
But since we’re on the topic of eggs
Have you ever almost had a complete meltdown at the grocery store, trying to make an educated decision about the eggs you are about to put in your shopping cart? After all, we would probably all like to buy eggs laid from from happy, healthy chickens and support companies who value the welfare of their animals. Reading the cartons, it is easy to believe that most of the eggs in the grocery store case came from happy chickens who spent their “cage-free” days “free ranging” and the really pampered ones were even “vegetarian-fed” (spoiler alert: chickens are not vegetarians!) So, what do all these terms actually mean? We will do our best to break it down since it is sadly not as transparent as it should, or could be. And, with eggs at super-high prices, you want to make sure you’re getting what you think you’re paying for.
And sorry to be a Debby Downer again, but of all the animals who suffer under our industrialized food system, chickens may be the most abused. Common practices in egg production include intensively confining thousands of hens in industrial barns, debeaking without pain medication, and maceration — referring to the process whereupon male chicks are ground up alive. When the model is profit and profit alone, chickens easily become egg-laying machines and nothing more.
Cage-Free: This term is regulated by the USDA and means that the eggs come from hens that are not kept in cages (conventional cages are 8 ½ by 11 inches, the size of a piece of paper). It doesn’t mean they’re clucking around in the fresh air and sunshine, though. The USDA states that eggs labeled as cage free “must be produced by hens housed in a building, room, or enclosed area that allows for unlimited access to food, water, and provides the freedom to roam within the area during the laying cycle.”
Free Range: Another USDA term, which means the eggs come from hens that have “continuous access to the outdoors during their laying cycle,” and further stipulates that “the outdoor area may be fenced and/or covered with netting-like material.” This broad definition encompasses everything from just a few small doors leading to an unappealing screened-in porch to barns with multiple large openings and several acres for hens to forage, perch and exhibit other typical hen behaviors. The combination of free range and either the Certified Humane or American Humane Certified labels on the carton means the birds can access a spacious outdoor run.
Organic: Eggs marked with the USDA’s National Organic Program label come from uncaged hens that are free to roam in their houses and have access to the outdoors. The hens are fed an organic diet of feed produced without conventional pesticides or fertilizers.
Pasture-Raised: There’s no standard definition of this term, so on its own the meaning may not be clear. But with the “Certified Humane” and/or “Animal Welfare Approved,” it means that in addition to barn space indoors, each hen was given 108 square feet of outdoor space and allowed to perform natural behaviors, such as pecking for seeds and bugs.
To Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States, the differences between cage-free, free-range, pasture-raised and organic are minute compared to the vast difference in hens’ quality of life between any of these options and caged. He said that if you don’t see any of those four labels on a carton, you’re looking at caged eggs, “one of the cruelest products ever offered in our food system.”
And a few labels that mean absolutely nothing:
Farm Fresh: All eggs come from “farms,” even if the farm is a big building where chickens are packed into cages, so this labeling claim has no value. The term “fresh” generally means the product hasn’t been frozen, but eggs in the shell should not be frozen.
No Hormones: By law, chickens that produce eggs and those that are sold for meat can’t be given hormones, so eggs with this claim on the package label are no different from eggs sold without it.
Natural: People often mistake “natural” for “organic,” but the two terms are very different. By definition, an egg is a natural food product, so slapping “natural” on it has no clearly defined additional meaning.
Vegetarian-Fed: Chickens are omnivores by nature. Some of their favorite treats are worms and bugs and larvae and if left to free range, they spend a lot of their time scratching and pecking to unearth these things. Vegetarian indicates the feed given to the chickens did not contain any meat or animal byproducts.
Egg labels are complicated. There is no one label that comprehensively addresses environmental issues, animal welfare issues, animal feed and worker welfare. But there are a couple that come close. Cartons stamped with the Certified Humane or Animal Welfare Approved seal are good bets—both of which are administered by third-party groups.
Sources:
What’s the Difference Between Free-Range, Cage-Free, and Pasture-Raised Eggs?, Eater by Brette Warshaw Jul 17, 2019
Food Label Guide: Eggs, foodprint.org/eating-sustainably/food-label-guide/food-label-guide-eggs/
“Egg Carton Labels: Here’s What All Those Terms Really Mean,” Huffpost, by Abigail Abesamis Demarest, Jan 23, 2020
“Eggstra! Eggstra! Learn All About Them,” USDA.gov
What We’ve Been Up To Lately
We’ll be honest, February has been a bit of a slog. We are in the middle of a home renovation, which keeps us in “planning for the future” mode, but the daily news very much grounds us in the present and also draws our attention to the past, in alarming and terrifying new ways. Our species is an interesting one and we find ourselves wishing that people would spend more time outside, observing and connecting with our natural surroundings. If we did, would we be so ready to extract every ounce from our one precious planet for a profit? Would we be so willing to pollute the air that we breathe and the waters that we rely upon for our very survival?
Or would we maybe see how interconnected and interdependent life is on earth, and take care of it?
Oh, and if it sounds like we’re maybe a little depressed, well, we bought some sheep to offset some of that.
On February 24th we welcomed a small flock of fine fleece Shetland Sheep from our neighbors at Quarry Hill Farm in Rhinebeck. Our plan for them? Love and care and wool and eventually, with the help of friends who know a lot more about sheep than we do, we hope to breed them. And, we hope, Dante, our Maremma Sheepdog will finally have the job he was born to do!
Kevin’s Quiche-caloric comfort when you need it!
Ingredients:
Short Crust Pastry (recipe below)
4 strips of bacon (optional, not needed, but if you want bacon, this becomes more of a classic Quiche Lorraine)
8 oz Gruyère, shredded
1 small to medium yellow onion, diced (very thinly sliced is also a great option for a little more texture, but sometimes harder to slice when finished)
Herbs: minced rosemary or thyme or sage or all three, or whatever feels right at the moment
4 chicken or duck eggs (hint: it’s better with duck eggs)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream (or, if you’re looking for ultra decadence, cut the sour cream and heavy cream, and use 2 cups of crème fraîche)
½ tsp salt, or more to taste (more would be better)
Freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Fill a 9-inch pie pan with the short crust pastry, trim the edges (see below for what to do with the trimmings).
3. Fry the strips of bacon until crispy, remove from the pan (reserve bacon fat for another use, but do not wash the pan), drain on paper towels and set aside. Crumble the bacon when cooled.
4. Sauté the onions in the bacon pan, but add some butter, a tablespoon or so. If you’re not using bacon, sauté the onions in 2 tablespoons of butter. When the onions are translucent, add the minced herbs and cook for another minute or two. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool. I also sometimes toast the cracked pepper at this stage for some added depth.
5. Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add the sour cream, heavy cream, and incorporate. Stir in the shredded Gruyère.
6. Once the onion/herb mixture is cooled, incorporate into the egg/cream/cheese goodness. Add in the crumbled bacon, if you’re using it. If not, all good!
7. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, but at least ½ to ¾ tsp salt.
8. Pour the creamy/cheesy/eggy goodness into the pastry shell and put in the oven.
9. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until puffed up and brown on the top. If you’re making this in the summer, cut thin tomatoes slices and arrange them on top around the crust before putting the quiche in the oven. They will dry out, intensify in flavor, and the tomato circles make for perfect slices when serving.
10. Let the quiche sit on a wire rack for 10 minutes before cutting into it. This will allow it to set up, and will make it easier to slice.
Short Crust Pastry:
Ingredients:
Salt
Sugar
Water
1 ½ cups flour
1 stick of butter
Dissolve a pinch of sugar and two pinches of salt in ½ cup of the coldest water you can get. Put 1 ½ cups of flower in a mixing bowl. Cut the stick of butter into small pieces and put them in the bowl of flour. With your hands, crumble up the butter in the flour until it becomes crumbly and granular. Do not over work. Larger chunks of butter are OK. The more you work it, the warmer it gets, and the less flaky it will be after baking. Pour in between ¼ cup and ½ cup of the salty/sugar/water. The amount will depend on how humid the day is. Start with a little, add if you need more after working it a bit. Mix it all together with your hands, then turn the dough out onto the counter and kneed until it is incorporated. Again, larger chunks of butter in the dough are what you want. If you want to do this the proper way, shape the dough into a ball or disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes. We never have time for this, so we just roll it out and use it immediately. Refrigerating it will make a flakier pastry, however.
What to do with the pastry trimmings? Roll them into strips. They’ll be irregular, but no worries, that’s life. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and bake them when you put the quiche in the oven. They’ll be done in about 10 minutes, and you’ll have little snack with your coffee as the quiche continues to cook, if the kids don’t eat them first.
BRANCHWATER PROVISIONS
We will be reopening our tasting room and farm store on Saturday, April 5th! Store hours are Thurs-Sun 12-5pm
We will be bringing a series of Fridays at the Farm back again this season, serving up cocktails and specialty food boards in our relaxed farm setting. Stay tuned for those dates!
With the risk of bird flu looming, we are doubling down on our biosecurity measures and ask that you please keep your visit to approved areas on the farm. Do not approach our animal enclosures without prior approval. And please do not bring your pets to the farm or our tasting room. We love dogs too, but we are a production facility and our priority is to keep all of us - humans and animals alike - safe and healthy. Your understanding is very much appreciated!
What we’ve been mixing up lately
We are ready for spring! And citrus makes us feel like it might be in sight. This cocktail is like wearing a wool sweater while sporting flip flops to go get your mail at the end of the driveway and seeing a bluebird flit past.
Mimi
1.5oz Branchwater Apple Brandy
1oz Fresh Lemon Juice
0.5oz Branchwater Bosc Pear Brandy
0.5oz Faccia Brutto Centerbe (or Green Chartreuse)
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with microplaned cinnamon dust. Hold up that pinky finger while you imbibe - you fancy!
Looking ahead…
Back in biz Saturday, April 5th. Our tasting room and farm store will be open and we are looking forward to keeping you stocked with local amazingness. We’ll keep you posted on IG stories and here as we start putting together some events and locking down dates. If you are a creative sort wanting to host a workshop (or series of workshops), reach out. We have space and we love seeing people gather to create beautiful things.