Ever wonder why you can buy different sizes of eggs? Sometimes as consumers we take for granted the natural processes behind our food. Kendall Ballantine from Central Park Farms explains where the size difference comes from:
One thing shoppers may not know is that those tiny eggs sometimes mixed in with their carton at the farmer’s market are called ‘pullet eggs’. These small eggs are laid by young hens just getting into the swing of laying. The same breed of hen will lay drastically different sized eggs depending on where they are in their life cycle. In the picture on this page, the pullet egg is the smaller one on the right — Both are laid by the same breed of chicken just at a different age. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, in fact they’re a cute addition to salads and other dishes but you’ll want to account for the size difference when baking. Here at Central Park Farms we sort out our pullet eggs for a more consistent carton size but they’re the ones our family eats and we often give them away at the market on Member’s Day or donate our overrun to our local food bank here in Langley.