Meet-the-Hens & Egg Day This Saturday (28th) FREE ENTRY
Calling all hen and egg lovers - come and enjoy a fantastic free (and free range!) egg and chicken themed day in our Farm Shop on this Saturday. We'll have plenty of hens to see, eggs and Scotch Eggs to buy plus an arty competition for the children.
Thanks to free-range egg producers and hen experts Chris & Fen at nearby Fenella’s Garden, we’ll have some happy free-range hens in spacious runs and houses in our Courtyard for you to see. You will also be able to chat to Chris & Fen about how to keep a few hens in your own garden if this is something you're thinking about doing. They know all about housing, feed, which breeds will suit you, egg producing etc. etc. so it will be time well spent, plus they sell housing (traditionally-styled and Omlet Eglu), equipment and point-of-lay hens. Please do pop along and meet Chris & Fen and their lovely hens - probably CouCou, Bluebelle, Pied Suffolk and layer of blue eggs, Columbine.
What else will we be up to on Egg Day?
Eggs... As well as hens to meet, we’ll have for sale plenty of Fenella’s Garden delicious rich-yolked free-range eggs (which head chef Tom uses). We’re hoping to have not just the usual brown eggs but also white, blue, pink and speckled.
Scotch Eggs... The Scotch Eggs we've started stocking have been a major hit with our customers so we’ll have extra in stock. Made from free-range pork and free-range eggs they have been selling out almost as soon as they come in since we started stocking them in July. We’ll try and get as many of the 28 varieties as possible! As well as classic recipes, we'll also have Valentino (cranberries and Wensleydale cheese), Brunch (apple and Stilton), Baz (sundried tomatoes and olives), Colonel (mustard and beer), Herbut (parsley, rosemary and sage) and the infamous Old Stager - which is pickled egg and crisps!
Gifts... Manager Lisa has an eye for gorgeous things so has sourced some lovely chicken-themed gifts for you as well.
Tasters & Recipes... Passionate food enthusiast and keen cook Jane from the Farm Shop will be serving up some moreish nibbles using lovely fresh free-range eggs. Jane will be cooking some delicious things on the spot for you including scrambled egg, crisp omelette and eggy bread. Other things to taste include Jane's pickled eggs, foccacia toast, Claire's egg and parsley sauce plus Jane's own home-made mayonnaise. Why not take the opportunity to come and chat with Jane about ingredients and cooking. Jane will also have free recipes for you to take home and try including some collected from the Doddington team: try Billy's Baked Eggs, Lee's Lovers' Breakfast, Grandma Willoughby's Bacon and Egg Pie and Ian's Lunchtime Scrambled Eggs. Come and be inspired!
Something EXTRA for the children... Do you know some artistic or creative children (aged 12 and under)? We want our younger visitors to bring in an egg (hard boiled or blown) that they have painted or decorated themselves. The winner will win a family ticket for two adults and up to four children to enjoy our House & Gardens on Sunday 29 August or Bank Holiday Monday 30 August when we’ll have some special mini-beast trug fun for children in our Kitchen Garden. Bring your painted or decorated egg/s in on Egg Day by 2pm (or any time the day before) and we’ll judge at 3pm.
Entry to Egg Day is FREE; no need to book. 10am to 4pm
To keep you thinking about eggs between now and Egg Day, we hope you enjoy our eggs-citing (our first and only egg pun!) eggy facts...
A single large egg provides 6.5 grams of protein or about 13% of the recommended daily intake for adults.
Peelability of a hard boiled egg is affected by the pH of the egg white and so by the eggs freshness. If the pH is below 8.9 ( a fresh egg is 8.0) then the inner membrane tends to stick to the albumen (egg white). After 3 days in the fridge the figure is around 9.2.
Fresh eggs are ideal for poaching as they have the largest proportion of thick white & will spread the least.
If a speck of yolk or any other fatty material is allowed in the bowl of egg whites for a meringue, it can reduce the foam’s maximum volume by as much as 2/3s. Bowls made of plastic should be avoided as plastics are polymers of hydrocarbon chains, which also form the bulk of all fat molecules, so plastics tend to retain traces of fatty material on their surfaces.
Most chickens will lay eggs until they accumulate a certain number, if the eggs are removed from the nest before that number is reached they will continue to lay indefinitely.
Broodiness is the hen’s inclination to stop laying and sit on its eggs until they hatch.
One end of an egg has an air pocket which supplies the hatching chicken with its first gulps of air.
Put an egg in a pan of cold water, the fresher the egg the sooner it will fall to the bottom, if rotten it will swim at the top.
Egg albumen and baking soda are the only alkaline ingredients found in the kitchen.
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