It’s eggs season!

Who knew eggs had a season?  Hens are one of nature’s signalers of spring.  When the days start to lengthen and warm just a little, they go into egg production mode.  They can lay one, and sometimes even two, eggs per day.  After the chill of winter they are happy to get back to work and suddenly the homestead farmer finds there’s an abundance of this produce.

There are only so many you can sell.  The neighbors have as many as they can handle.  Friends smile politely, but are all set for now.  Omlettes don’t look so good anymore.  What to do???

We’ve preserved them for months with water glassing, which is a method of using hydrated lime to keep eggs useable.  You can check that out here: Preserving your Homestead Egg Harvest.

The other way we love to keep eggs good is pickling them.  It’s a spring treat around here.  It’s simple enough that the kids can help: hard boil and peel the eggs, put them in jars, pour the pickle brine over them, put the lid on and put in the fridge for 24 hours.

Hard boiling fresh eggs can be the trickiest part of the process.  They don’t like to peel very well sometimes.  When I boil them, I’ve found that vinegar (a good glug) in the water and then a good rinse in cold water makes them easier to peel.  For Christmas I was gifted an Insta-pot.  What a game changer!  I use one to two minutes at pressure and the eggs aren’t overcooked (with that grey ring around the yolk) and peel wonderfully.  Either way, if the eggs don’t peel perfectly, they will still pickle just fine.

We got this recipe from an old gentleman in Montana.  His parents had homesteaded the land he lived on and he told us many stories of growing up in a homesteader’s cabin.  His mother had used this recipe to preserve eggs.  Here it is for you!