Mar 21 2025 - And What You Can Do About It

 

AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.  That's one of the calls to action these days. There's always something you can do about something.   The current situation in the U.S. is the circumstance of interest: the egg shortage. There is a remarkable emotional component to the egg shortage. Writers are proclaiming Eggonomics is rattling Americans.     Don't you wonder how it is that one commodity has taken hold of an entire country? There are answers!  The Psychology of What Crazy-High Egg Prices Are Doing to Our Minds (Hint:  It's Not Good) This article points to scarcity and shortages and what happens to people's brains.  We remember the toilet paper crisis.  The U.S. egg crisis has PBS coverage showing the inside of a refrigerator with 8 dozen eggs stacked up. How must that feel for Americans?  The richest, most powerful country economically and militarily, and...it doesn't have enough eggs. Scarcity signals deeper worries and causes behaviour changes.  People get the sense that the system is broken and can't produce enough for everyone. The area of study is called zero-sum thinking.  That’s “the belief that life is a battle over finite rewards where gains for one mean losses for another, and these days, that notion seems to be everywhere,”  So here we are watching a crisis unfold.  And writers are using the egg crisis to their advantage: "Egg thefts. Egg shortages. And now a hard-boiled government investigation." So at least there is more humour to come, with Easter around the corner and all those DIY ideas:  "We're going to have to paint potatoes this Easter!"

What do you think?  Will we return to the musicals of the 1930s and 40s trying to distract from economic circumstances and world events?   Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Mar 7 2025 - Eggs Alert

 

Our egg prices have not been affected so far.  We have been affected by the avian flu outbreak. It started in 2022 and there were flock culls then. How bad is the price spike in the U.S.?  The prices have gone to $8.17 in March 2025.  Don't ask me about the seventeen cents - the price has gone up around 100%.  In November 2024 the price was $3.65.  You'd notice that increase.   We've had avian flu outbreaks in Canada.  But we don't have the agribusiness size - they are called mega-producers. A farm can have six million birds.  In Canada, egg farms average 25,000 laying hens per farm.   The U.S. industry is considered more competitive - the name the CBC article gave it was "go big or go home"-  egg production is cheaper.  But then these are the risks.  Avian flue kills 90% of the flock eventually.  They have to cull 100% of the flock, and the facilities have to be disinfected before reuse.  Then they can start over.   You can imagine if U.S.. consumers went this berserk over egg prices, what will happen over price increases due to tariffs.  Everything from "blame the president - the past president" to blame the producers for price "gouging".  I am sure there's more suffering to come for consumers.   For the moment, there is still some humour. Here is an excellent egg price joke.  And doesn't a picture of eggs take on new meaning.

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Mar 27 - How the Eggs Got into Easter

 

I have forgotten how eggs got into the Easter tradition or maybe I didn't really look into it. This comes from wikipedia and seems an astonishing sort of origin:  "The use of eggs as favors or treats at Easter originated when they were prohibited during Lent. A common practice in England in the medieval period was for children to go door-to-door begging for eggs on the Saturday before Lent began. People handed out eggs as special treats for children prior to their fast." What about chocolate and Easter?   "At that time, it was customary to save eggs until the end of the fast, and some eggs were also decorated. The chocolate egg appeared in the 18th century, when the idea of emptying eggs and filling them with chocolate was introduced as a way of marking the end of the fast."  According to Wikipedia chocolate eggs first appeared at the court of Louis XIV in Versailles, and chocolate eggs were produced in 1725 in France and continued thereafter. The big moment of the big chocolate egg is a highlight of Easter.  It is either British Chocolatier J.S. Fry & Sons or Cadbury who created the first modern chocolate Easter egg.  Definitely Cadbury is known for the  invention of machinery that made pure cocoa butter that could be moulded.  Most reports of when chocolate came to Easter dwell on this moment  - in 1875 Cadbury released their first line off chocolate Easter eggs - the hollow ones.  They were filled with sugared almonds. So I guess the story of Easter and chocolate is that it got into Easter through eggs.  The egg story is the complicated one to me.  Many legends and religious myths are part of this tradition.   I found some pictures of Koi in the Lightroom database, and have been editing them to showcase the Koi.

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Mar 16 2022 - To Wash or Not to Wash

 

I buy organic eggs from Elizabeth on Victoria Avenue in Vineland.  Every once in a while I get an egg with a little poop on it.  It doesn't wash off very well.  I wondered about this, and got the explanation yesterday from Christine who grooms Millie - she raises chickens. Should you wash chicken eggs after being collected from the hen house?   The simple answer is "No". Eggs are laid with a natural coating on the shell called the “bloom” or “cuticle”. This coating is the first line of defense in keeping air and bacteria out of the egg. Eggshells are porous, so when you wash them you’re removing that natural barrier.  Why would you not wash the eggs?  Unwashed eggs can sit on your kitchen counter at room temperature for a couple of weeks and they’ll still be edible. But once they’ve touched water, they need to be refrigerated. Store-bought eggs have been cleaned so they need to go in the fridge. And then there are rules of thumb when washing the eggs.  This comes from a website: "You want the water to be warmer than the egg so it doesn’t suck the bacteria in, and you want to do it under running water. You don’t want to put them in a bowl of water and then start washing them. It should be running water so they’re not sitting in the dirty water," she says. "Then, just let them dry and refrigerate them. Personally, I don’t wash my eggs until just before we eat them." Another site has you spray them with diluted bleach-water solution to sanitize them.  The MasterClass site says to spray them with mineral oil to keep them from losing moisture in the refrigerator. Some things to not do? Avoid using dish soap or scented cleaning solutions. Don't wash in cold water as it creates a vacuum and pulls bacteria into the eggs. Don't soak eggs in water - again it will open the egg up to bacteria. Don't allow the eggs to stay wet for the same reason. It's complicated but interesting to find out about farm life when you are an urbanite.

Our first chicken/rooster was at The Good Earth restaurant pecking around on the vineyard side The second was a chicken named Elvis at Gate to Plate farm.  He was strutting along. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April 12 2020 - And It's About Eggs

What about eggs?  How did eggs get to be part of Easter? The Christian interpretation of the egg is that it represents Jesus' emergence from the tomb and resurrection. But eggs have been a symbol of new life since ancient times.  The ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians and Hindus all believed the world began with an enormous egg.  It is called the world egg, cosmic egg or mundane egg.   Some primordial being comes into existence by 'hatching' from the egg, sometimes lain on the primordial waters of the Earth.  The very earliest idea of 'egg-shaped cosmos' comes from Sanskrit scriptures. It continues through all ancient societies and into modern mythology and cosmology. With that long history of sacred celebration, what have people done with eggs that make the Guinness World Records stand up and pay attention?  Many irreverent things, all involving many people and many eggs. Largest egg structure - 48,230 eggs forming a pyramid. Largest East egg hunt - 501,000 eggs that were searched for by 9,753 children Largest Easter egg tree - 82,404 painted hen eggs Largest decorated egg - 49 ft 3 inches tall and decorated Most people dyeing eggs - 582 in Redmond, Washington Tallest chocolate Easter egg - 34 ft 1.05 inches I didn't colour eggs for Easter, but I did colour hosta leaves to create this  Nature's Impressions abstract.

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April Fool's Easter

Do you remember Easter Sunday and April Fool's Day occurring on the same day? It occurred together in 1956, this year 2018, and next in 2029. With the Easter Bunny taking over the secular part of Easter, we should be able to see some April Fool's Easter Eggs. Instead of Easter Candy Carrots? Chocolate covered brussel sprout cake pops. What about Niagara Grape eggs?  Cover grapes in coloured foil to look like chocolates. Easter Eggs in colours - hollow out egg shells and fill with jello Chocolate bunnys?  Fill them with mustard. Pinterest has visual delights for Easter - jello easter eggs, glow eggs, shaving cream easter eggs, for us adults, bunny money, and then the toilet joke - jelly beans.  Here are two for April Fool's Day.        In the purist world of April Fool's here's boredpanda.com for some ideas. These pranks come with a final score - check out the first one - insects on lamps.  They were a 154 score - right on top and lowest work effort.