The Incredible, Edible Egg

According to Dr. William Campbell Douglass:

Did you know that cholesterol is not a terrifying toxin, but a life-saving nutrient. Your own body makes it when your food don't provide it. And studies now show that if you're cholesterol-starved, you will raise your risk of massive strokes.

EGG LOVERS LIVE LONGER. Not only are eggs not guilty of causing heart disease, they've been proven to prevent it. That's right - an enormous study of 800,000 people has shown that egg-eaters have a much lower rate of heart attacks and strokes than egg-avoiders.

And on that note, we are pleased to announce that Clydes Farm is now a vendor at the Camellia City Market. Clydes Farms sells Bonnie's Farm Fresh Eggs. Bonnie's Farm Fresh Eggs include brown eggs, duck* and goose eggs* and lower cholesterol Araucana eggs.

*in season

So, just what exactly are Araucana eggs?

In 1914, fowl were discovered in the forests of Chile, South America. These fowl were different from all other known chickens in that they laid a bluish-grey colored egg. Until this time, it was believed that all domestic chickens were descended from the wild Jungle Fowl of southeast Asia and had come by explorers and traders to the Orient, Europe, Africa, and the New World. But the knowledge of this strange South American chicken suggests the possibility of an entirely different species of wild Jungle Fowl, which was indigenous to the Western Hemisphere.

The name, Araucana, comes from a large territory in Chile and the Araucanian Indian people there. It is thought that their ancestors had developed and domesticated this colored egg layer long before the Spanish conquest of South America. The disruption of Indian life and culture by this conquest led to what was, for 400 years, believed to be the extinction of these chickens. But since their re-discovery in 1914, they have gradually become known in both England and the United States.

It is known that Spanish conquistadores of the 16th century reported finding chickens in South and Central America that laid blue eggs and had no tails, and which were different from those of Castile in Spain. Also Chilean Indians had words for hen, rooster, and egg which were totally unrelated to corresponding Spanish terms. These pieces of evidence support the theory that there were chickens in South America before the Europeans came.

The original Araucanas, judging from a color plate appearing in the National Geographic Magazine of April 1927 and probably painted from a specimen in the Washington, DC Zoo was tail-less, clean legged, and with small tufts of feathers over each ear. Crossing with other breeds has pretty well eliminated the tailless feature, has reduced the number of birds with eartufts, although some are still present, and has introduced a great variety of plumage colors. The blue-green egg color trait seems to be dominant, however, and so far as is known will persist indefinitely in subsequent generations. This fascinating and colorful breed has not yet been standardized as to plumage color or body type, but the unusual egg color is an identifying feature and attracts intense interest and surprise wherever seen.

hattip: Murray McMurray Hatchery and Douglass Report