Free Range or Value eggs?

jcr16

i feel so guilty now. i always buy value eggs. i never used to care tbh if a hen was in a cage. and tbh i didn't ever really think about it. but now since reading this i don't think i can ever buy value again. i have just changed my tesco shop online and asked for barn eggs instead of value.

my in-laws have chickens and my 2 yr old little girls loves feeding them and collecting the eggs . i had been now talking to my husband and next year once we have sorted the garden ( it abou the size of a football pitch. it is huge) we are gonna get some chickens. were a bit worried as a lady down the road has an evil cat. so were gonna plan the hens home very well. and then gonna have fresh eggs, from home grown chick's. i can't believe how gulity i am feeling now. but i guess that good in a way as i have seen the error of my ways. thanks guys.

Minerva_2

We keep our own hens in the garden. I would rather go without eggs than eat "value" eggs. They don't lay so well in the winter months, so sometimes I have to buy additional eggs and I always buy free range. When you see hens in the garden and realise how much they enjoy scratching around, dust bathing, sun bathing (in the summer!) you realise just how cruel the cage production system is.

BTW, hens are not really difficult to keep and are very entertaining. They are also great at getting rid of slugs and snails!

Sweet_Pea_2

I always bought the cheapest until last Christmas when I went to M+S to do some extra Xmas food shopping. I bought some of their free range eggs and they were wonderful! I still havent tasted eggs since that were like these. A massive yolk that was a lovely bright yellow - exactly as an egg should be imo. Ad I remember eggs being when I was a child - (and Im only 36 so it wasnt that long ago!) I like the yolk the best and in the eggs that I had been nuying the yolks are getting smaller and smaller!
I havent bought an egg since that was not free range/organic. Although I still maintain M+S eggs are the best.

jack92

Free range for me. I hate the thought of battery hens

Nicola

mah_jong

Like many i have a tight budget BUT I decided long ago, that price is not the only consideration. Eggs are in this category. I prefer to buy local ones that are as fresh as you can get. Yes a good bit dearer but for taste they are unbeatable!

JCL

An old thread in Old Style but certainly still just as relevant.

I do look to save money where I can but it has to be free range all the way for me. Hate to admit I buy in Tesco's though due to normally doing grocery shopping late at night.

I need to suss out some local suppliers as mentioned in other posts.

ti1980

I buy eggs about once a month now and when I do I always buy free range.
I have bought free range for years, even when I was a very poor student. I used to buy eggs about once a month back then too so I could justify spending that amount of money on eggs and I always felt 'better' for it too.

It sounds wonderful being able to keep your own chickens but not possible for me as I don't own my own home and living in town am reliant on supermarkets when I do get my eggs.
I wonder if people would be able to post how much they spend on their eggs and where they buy them from. I usually get mine from M&S, used to always get 6 but its about 40p more to get a dozen so started doing that. Main reason why I get them once a month now.

HOLsale

mightymo wrote:

I am desperately trying to stick to my grocery challenge budget.

However, I have a dilemma! Should I buy free range eggs or value eggs?

I always used to buy value everything, but then started to think about the poor chick chicks and started to buy free range. But now I am trying to budget should I go back to value eggs?

If I am honest I can't taste the difference! Usually they are in cakes, scrambled or have pepper on!

why not buy the free range for eating and get soya flour for baking? you can get a decent size bag (say 200-400g) for about £1-1.50 at health food stores and it lasts for ages

simply use 1 heaping tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon water for each egg you're replacing. the only thing i can say though is that you MUST have some other form of fat in the recipe (oil, butter etc) as if you try to do egg substitute AND oil substitute (americans are big on replacing oil with applesauce) then you'll get very flat bread, muffins etc

you can NOT taste the difference, honest! and you never have to worry about your eggs being safe to use or runing out of eggs in the middle of a recipe. the flour keeps for ages too.

personally though i just cut back on eggs and ate free range but i realise that everyone's circumstances are different. you could, as was suggested buy the barn eggs which are compromise if you really had to.

i now get my eggs at £1.30/half dozen free range organic, they come with my organic box scheme but it's tempting sometimes when i see a huge tray of eggs for not much more than i'm paying for half a dozen... but financially right now i don't have to worry and we're not huge egg eaters anyway. The soya flour is my way of resisting the cheap eggs without missing out on homemade baked goods

HOLsale

VickyA wrote:

I buy my eggs from the local butcher too. The farm they're from is 5 miles away and they're lovely, tasty, large eggs. Cost 75p for 6. It bolsters my trying to "buy local" stance..................

hmm all this talk of quality eggs from local butchers has spurred me on, might see what i can come by in my local butcher

i know he sells duck eggs which we'll get ourselves as a treat

duck eggs are so buttery and delicious mmmmmmmmmm

HOLsale

Curry_Queen wrote:

Hi Caz

Just because they are free range it doesn't mean they have to be fertile eggs. Many farms just keep the hens without a cockerel, and in any case, when the eggs are taken straight from the hens the embryo never gets chance to develop.

On occasion, you may find a very tiny red dot in the yolk of a potentially fertile egg but it's nothing more than a cluster of cells and in no way resembles a chick embryo

when i was about 5 i remember being horrified because my mom would make scrambled eggs with milk so they were really light and fluffly (chick like) looking, then she would put ketchup on them (looked like blood to my childish mind)... i couldn't eat eggs again until i was in my early 20's!

it's funny now but i really thought my mother was the most horrible person for that