duck eggs | KW Homestead

Tag: duck eggs

Better Than Bulletproof: Coffee Made With Creamy Duck Eggs

June 29, 2018 / Emma / Comments Off

What if your morning coffee could give you 36% of your daily iron, 34% of your daily folate, and 168% of your daily B12?

Well, it can! Just add the yolks of 2 duck eggs and start your morning off right. All you need is your morning coffee, an immersion blender (or regular blender), and duck eggs.

Now, hold on a minute… You might be a little confused about the legitimacy and safety of adding raw eggs to coffee. Let’s explain…

First of all, adding raw egg to coffee has been around, in various cultures, for a super long time! The Scandinavians and the Vietnamese do it and have done it for generations upon generations.

Second, adding raw eggs to hot coffee doesn’t mean you’re actually consuming raw eggs. Blending the egg into the steaming hot cup of joe means that the coffee is cooking the eggs as it blends. So you’re really consuming cooked eggs with your coffee. No worries!

This is how we do it, and it’s super easy:

Brew your coffee (or tea!), crack and separate the yolks of 2 eggs (you can totally do more!)
Place the yolks in the deep cup that came with your immersion blender, or another deep cup or mug
Pour your coffee on top
Immersion blend to your heart’s content… You’re left with a foamy, creamy, and absolutely fantastic morning beverage. You can also add cinnamon, vanilla, or a bit of sugar.

Another amazing thing is… Did you miss breakfast? Well, if you did, don’t fret because you just drank 2 eggs! This is sure to get you going in the morning and tide you over until you can find a second breakfast elsewhere. Absolutely yummy!

Save Over 25% with a Duck Egg CSA Membership

April 11, 2018 / Emma / Comments Off

Love our duck eggs? We have a few spots available in our Duck Egg CSA, guaranteeing you weekly dozens or half-dozens—whichever works best for your family. CSAs last for 6 months and knock off $1.50 EVERY SINGLE WEEK. We can’t think of a better way to save than this!

You might have heard us say that life’s too short to eat chicken eggs. That’s because they have more of ALL nutrients than chicken eggs, and taste creamier and richer than a chicken egg. Duck eggs are a pretty amazing food!

If you’re planning on signing up for our Duck Egg CSA, be sure to act fast before all CSA spots are spoken for. You can reserve your spot by signing up through our online store or by sending us an email at ourochreway@gmail.com.

Duck Eggs CSA Details

Beginning the week that you sign up, you have 26 weeks of eggs to collect (approximately 6 months). You pick up one each week for 24 of these weeks, skipping any 2 weeks you choose. If you choose not to skip 2 weeks, your CSA subscription would be over in 24 weeks instead. You have 2 skipped weeks built into this 26 week subscription, and we ask that you let us know the weeks you will not be picking up your eggs by the Friday before your pickup on Saturday at the Corner Farmers Market. If you skip picking up your eggs for more than 2 weeks, you forfeit the other weeks that you miss. It is perfectly acceptable to send another person to collect your eggs for you!

CSA Membership Fees

The total CSA fee for the Dozen Duck Egg CSA is $168, which equates to $7/dozen. This is a savings of 17%!

The total CSA fee for the Half-Dozen Duck Egg CSA is $96, which equates to $4/half-dozen. This is a savings of 27%!

We ask that you pay the entire fee on your first pickup day, or now through our online store. All purchases are final, and no refunds can be issued.

Why Feed Your Family Duck Eggs? Let’s Count the Ways…

They stay fresher longer because of their thick shells (much harder to crack!)
Duck eggs have more Omega-3 fatty acids than chicken eggs
Often, people who have noted allergies to chicken eggs are able to digest duck eggs without issue
Duck eggs have almost twice as much fat content as chicken eggs
Duck eggs are creamier and generally richer tasting
Because they are creamier than chicken eggs, they are great for baking! Check out this post about all the ways you can (and should) enjoy duck eggs!

Nutrient Dense Eggs!

Duck eggs have higher levels of all micronutrients than chicken eggs (per egg), to the tune of around 2 to 7 times more, depending. Duck eggs have about 7 times more vitamin B1 and B12 than chicken eggs, and about 3 times the iron. If you’re pregnant (or hoping to become pregnant soon), it’s important to know that duck eggs are significant sources of choline and folate. Both of these nutrients are essential for the proper development of your baby’s brain and spinal column! Talk about a superfood…

Pastured Poultry Delivered to Your Front Door!

August 24, 2017 / jason / Comments Off

We are excited to announce that we now offer delivery for our pasture raised chicken, duck and duck eggs to customers in the Greensboro, NC area!

We love seeing customers at the Farmers Market, but sometimes you just can’t make it!

We realize that sometimes it’s hard to get to the farmers market, but that doesn’t mean you want to go an entire week without your delicious, free range poultry fix. So, we decided to offer a delivery option to our local customers, both old and new.

Delivery Fees and Protocol

For now, until we get our new online store fully stocked and functional, we will be taking delivery orders by email. We’ll then let you know your delivery date, and ask that if you will not be home, to leave a cooler with ice packs by your front door, preferably in the shade.

Orders $150 and over receive free delivery!
Orders $40 – $149 have a $7.95 delivery fee.
Orders $30 – $39.99 have a $9.95 delivery fee.
Orders $15 – $29.99 have a $14.95 delivery fee.
Orders under $15 have a $22.95 delivery fee.

The more you buy, the lower the fee! Of course, all orders picked up at the farmers market in Greensboro are always free.

These fees also apply to our Chicken CSA customers who would like to take advantage of home delivery. In this case, we will use your discounted price to figure out the delivery fee. For example, our Deluxe Chicken CSA is $4.99/lb, so if you order two 4.5 pound chickens, your product total is $44.91 (9 lbs x $4.99) with an added delivery fee of $7.95. You could also add other items, like a dozen duck eggs, to this order if you like!

So remember, don’t feel down the next time you can’t make it to the farmers market, simply shoot us an email (ourochreway@gmail.com) with your order, and we’ll make sure you get your favorite humanely raised and harvested, duck, chicken, and eggs.

SPECIAL!!! This week enjoy 10% off all chicken parts! From boneless breast to juicy thighs! Expires after Saturday August 26, 2017.

Incubating Pekin Eggs

March 22, 2017 / Emma / Comments Off

Last year we didn’t have great luck with our incubation… Our incubators malfunctioned in various ways and we were only able to hatch out a few babies. This year we’re hoping for a different result. We’ve calibrated the incubators to be sure that their temperature is reading true (this was our biggest issue), and the nicer incubator we have is now in a spot where the cords won’t get bumped or jostled (this was disconnected the incubator and totally ruining our hatch).

We segregated the adult Pekins from the rest of the layer flock, thus collecting only Pekin eggs… Which are usually a bit larger.

The ideal temperature for incubating ducks is 99.5 degrees F and the ideal relative humidity is 55%. Duck eggs incubate for 28 days, a whole week longer than chicken eggs. Amazing, right?! We are all set to place the eggs in the incubator in the next few days, and we’ve made sure to rotate the eggs every day so that the eggs don’t start to settle or stick to one side of the shell. Wish us luck this year!

We have 2 of the Little Giant incubators with trays that slowly swivel and rotate the eggs over time.

We have one incubator from Incubator Warehouse that worked wonders two years ago before it became electrically sensitive. The egg turner turns the eggs partially every 6 hours (or less or more if you change the settings).

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How Do You Cook Duck Eggs?

February 22, 2017 / Emma / Comments Off

Oftentimes we are asked how duck eggs should be cooked. One of the great things about duck eggs, is that they can be cooked in all the same ways as classic chicken eggs. If you’re interested in seeing a nutritional profile comparing duck eggs and chicken eggs, visit this page on our website. Here are a few more tips:

Fried Duck Eggs

We usually fry our duck eggs over-easy, but duck eggs shine as fried eggs no matter how you cook them. The only difference in cooking duck eggs is that cooking them on medium heat is more effective than high heat (as folks often do with chicken eggs). Since duck eggs have a higher fat content, cooking them on high increases the risk that you might burn the eggs before they’re fully cooked. Another great thing about duck eggs is that the yolks hold together very well when flipping them, so you rarely get a busted yolk. Perfect!

Fried Duck Eggs

Scrambled Duck Eggs/Duck Egg Omelettes

Jason particularly enjoys our scrambled duck eggs and omelets. Duck eggs are great for cooking in this way, especially since they hold up better than chicken eggs and retain more texture and flavor when cooked omelette-style. Duck eggs are significantly more flavorful than chicken eggs, and creamier in texture. They’re extra delicious when you add veggies and other yummies to your omelette.

A Lambsquarter, Purple Potato, and Duck Eggs Omelette!

Boiled/Deviled Duck Eggs

Boiled duck eggs are one of Emma’s favorite ways to eat our eggs. We boil them a bit longer than chicken eggs, but we know everyone has their own recipe for boiling eggs. We usually boil them for about 10 minutes and then leave them in the warm water with the pot’s lid on for about 10 more minutes. We always check an egg afterwards just to make sure they’re cooked to our preferences.

In case you love deviled eggs (like Emma does), you’re going to love deviled duck eggs even more! The natural creaminess of the eggs makes all the difference when you devil them! This is Emma’s mom’s recipe for curried, devil duck eggs… The BEST deviled eggs around!

Baking with Duck Eggs

Duck eggs are often touted as being the very best for baking, and it’s totally true! Since we only eat duck eggs these days (no chicken eggs for us), we’ve baked with duck eggs for a long time. The creaminess of duck eggs makes baking with them simply amazing! When you’re baking, you can substitute duck eggs for chicken eggs 1:1.

Duck Egg Drop Soup

This is perhaps the easiest and most unique way to enjoy duck eggs. We make a delicious broth with our chicken bones and make sure that the strained and ready-to-drink broth is very lightly simmering. Then we crack a few duck eggs into a bowl and whisk them so that when we slowly pour them into the simmering broth, they are easily stirred into small pieces with a fast-moving whisk. The whisked duck eggs cook in a matter of minutes and then we like to add peas and other yummy spices! Try this simple and easy recipe for a delicous treat.

Duck Egg Drop Soup!

There is always a way to enjoy nutritious and yummy duck eggs!

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Happy Ducks Come Home

February 20, 2017 / Emma / Comments Off

This video is a brief look at the beginning of our ducks’ nighttime routine here on the homestead. After we call “duck, duck, duck!” they come running back to their nighttime space to wait for their evening meal. We just added fresh bedding (consisting of leaves) before this video was filmed, and since ducks are hunters at heart, you can see them searching through the bedding in case any bugs are hiding.

Check out the video below!

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Beware the Label “Free Range”

February 15, 2017 / Emma / Comments Off

Everyone knows that poultry labeled as free range is better than poultry that isn’t, right?

Sadly, you might have to think again!

According to the USDA website, which controls and manages food safety and food labeling, all that is required of producers who raise meat labeled as “free range” or “free roaming” is that they must “demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.”

So what does this really mean? It means that producers can raise their birds with less than 1 square foot of space each, they can raise them on a concrete floor, under fluorescent lighting, living on layers of their own poop, as long as they have “access to the outside.” Access to the outside can mean a small door that leads to a parking lot, a fenced in concrete slab, or a lovely pasture. You can see the problem here…

Free range or organic doesn’t actually say anything about how humanely the birds are raised, or whether or not they actually ever go outside and enjoy the sunshine, grass, and bugs.

This is a “porch” in a commercial poultry operation that counts as “access to the outside.” Image from cornucopia.com.

Your best bet as a consumer is to buy locally, and get to know your farmer so you can really be sure of how your meat and eggs are raised!

So what does the life of a truly free range duck look like here at KW Homestead? Check out the video below to see how they live…

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KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013