Good evening,

Omelette, poached, served on top of noodles or eaten hard boiled with a little sea salt - however you enjoy them, eggs are tasty and can be really good for us.

The term ‘free-range’ is often abused as it can simply mean allowing hens onto the same patch of over-pecked & muddy grassland for a number of hours each day. When the birds poop their nitrogen rich manure it makes the grass taste bitter, which they don’t want to eat. This means they tend to eat almost only grain, and so free-range doesn’t necessarily mean much by way of welfare or producing a more nutritious egg.

Our hens are properly pasture-raised. They live in a fenced paddock in the orchard, spanning a few rows of apple trees which gives them plenty to explore and peck. We move them to a new patch every few days, which means they don’t get the chance to over-eat the grass and bugs around the hen house, and their poop adds a bit of brilliant fertiliser to the ground without building up.

Eggs from hens that eat grass and insects contain higher levels of B Vitamins, considerably more omega-3 fatty acids and more vitamins A and E than those from grain-fed birds. So, not only is our system hard to beat in terms of welfare for the girls, but we’re getting nutrient rich eggs with delicious golden yolks, too. Pretty eggcellent, if you ask me.

Recipe for a very good tortilla made with very good eggs

Finely slice 2 onions and fry in a little olive oil until soft and slightly caramelised. Thinly slice 2 potatoes and cook in a substantial amount of oil until completely tender and cooked through.

Mix 6 orchard eggs with the onions, drained potatoes and a liberal amount of salt in a little olive oil, over a very low heat until creamy. Turn off the heat and allow to rest for 5 mins.

Heat up the tortilla pan with some olive oil and add the egg mixture. Cook until golden on the bottom, carefully flip and return to the heat to finish cooking. The inside should remain slightly runny. Serve warm or cold with flaky salt.