So am grocery shopping on Saturday with a friend (I don't typically grocery shop in a pack but it's a cottage thing). We're in the dairy section and I reach for a dozen eggs and he asks which colour of eggs I'm buying. Suddenly I feel a little defensive about my choice.
"Er, well, they're um... white," I reply tentatively.
"Interesting," he says, nodding.
"What on earth do you mean?" I ask, looking rather dubiously at the carton of eggs in my hand.
"Just that you can tell a lot about a person by the colour of eggs they choose," he replies mysteriously.
Well, obviously he's joking (isn't he?) but still. Is there something I should know? Are white eggs the process cheese of the produce world? Why do I suddenly have the sneaking suspicion that there isn't a white egg to be found in Martha Stewart's kitchen?
Well, I do rather like the colour of brown eggs, I reflect. Quite charming, really. I mean, look at how lovely they are here:
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But now I have to know if there's really a difference between the two kinds of eggs. Beyond the delicate hue of their shells, that is.
Off I go to the definitive source: Google. "What is the difference between white eggs and brown eggs?" I type, thinking I must be mad. The fact that the question autofills suggests I am not the only one who has asked this before. Phew.
There are dozens of links, so I click on the first one. It's a short entry. Apparently there is no real difference between brown and white eggs (aHA!) except that white eggs are are laid by hens with white feathers and white earlobes. (Now this has to be a joke, I surmise. Chickens with white earlobes?... Come on). Brown egg layers are usually hens with red feathers, and yes, you guessed it...red earlobes. Apparently brown eggs are more expensive because the hens that lay them are larger birds and therefore they eat more food making them more costly to maintain. And some people claim that brown eggs taste better.
Well, I have learned something new today, and having looked at countless photos, am now overwhelmed with the urge to buy brown eggs. They're just so, well, brown. How could I have been happy all these years with anything else?
Now I wonder what that says about me.
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