Very Local Eggs

So far, the once-per-day locavore meal has consisted mainly of two scrambled eggs (with garden chives) and an orange and several replays of the best salad I've ever tasted.  It's been pretty easy, but our suburban, code-enforced two chickens (per household) wouldn't supply us with enough eggs to scramble regularly. Even cheating - we have three chickens: a Rhode Island Red and two bantam (miniature) Wyandottes - production wouldn't keep up with our family's need.

Our local grocer, Ward's, occasionally stocks local eggs, but it's dicey. Larger egg producers invariably blow the whistle on this "illegal" practice, and the eggs disappear from the shelves for a time.  It's illegal for most of these producers to sell their eggs because small chicken operations generally fall short of USDA regulations for doing so, particularly rules regarding expensive egg-cleaning equipment that is not financially feasible for small producers.      

But we wild-eyed radical wannabes not only harbor an illegal extra chicken but have in the past secretly met an elderly local farmer in the parking lot of Ward's to buy large quantities of eggs for the Breakfast Brigade. He passed away, but our friend, Alicia, helped connect us to the "Chicken Lady" who now delivers local eggs to the CW House each week on her way into town for work. Same good arrangement - she takes good care of her chickens, we pay her a fair price, we serve good, healthy, fresh eggs to folks in need of something good. 

If Gainesville were to go locavore - by choice or necessity, I imagine there would be a lot more farmers bringing eggs to market, and a lot more chickens in our backyards. Big Chicken would just have to deal.