What colour are eggs?

I asked this question of some grade one students visiting the store and hands shot in the air. "White" said a confident little boy. "Brown" said an equally assured girl. With a grin, I brought out my favourite show-and-tell - a carton of rainbow eggs, ranging from a creamy beige through a soft greeny-blue to a rich mottled mahogany. I love it when people of every age inevitably say "oooooh!"

People think I've coloured them, or that the hens have been fed some odd diet, but these eggs are simply the natural colour for the rare and heritage breeds of chickens raised by Claire Smith of Skeffling Farm in Clavering. A dentist by profession, Claire is realizing her dream of raising lavender and chickens like her auntie back home in England. Her birds include heritage Canadian chickens like those lovely shiny brown ones in every farm story of my childhood. She also raises beautiful rare breeds that she shares with others who are trying to keep agricultural diversity alive.

The white eggs so many of us were raised on are generally the product of white Leghorns - a breed commonly used in large commercial laying operations because they lay more eggs and are smaller so they eat less. Brown eggs often come from Rhode Island Reds.

And the blue-green eggs? Ameraucanas, of various colours themselves, lay these beautiful eggs.

Mardi Gras in Grey Bruce

"Fat Tuesday" or Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday ...whatever you call it, the day after Monday next week is Pancake Tuesday.

Traditionally the week before the beginning of Lent was spent repenting of one's sins and receiving absolution ...shriving ....and pancakes were the way of using up fat and sugar before the days of fasting ahead.

Here in Grey County we have all the perfect local ingredients for the most delicious pancake breakfast or supper. We grow wheat and oats and mill them here in the county. We grow oil seeds for the pan and raise dairy cows for the milk and butter. Hens lay fresh eggs every day all over the county! We raise hogs and have butchers and generations of recipes for the best sausages, ham and bacon.

And best of all - to top it all off - we have maple bushes. Enjoy that natural, sweet gold running down the side of the stack.

Support your local farmers. Enjoy yourself. No repentance necessary.