I have a carton of eggs that I keep in the refrigerator just for us. I labeled the carton “The Misfits.” These are the eggs that come out very small or unusually large or with a strange shape or maybe they are a pale color and the poop stains the shell even after I wash them. I have often thought about how much I love these “misfits.”
They are not the perfect eggs from our flock in dark brown or light cream or blue-green with a beautiful shape, so I don’t put them in the egg cartons that I sell to our egg customers. I have the idea that people wouldn’t want to pay for the “misfits” because they are not perfectly-shaped like the ones in the grocery store. They are so beautiful to me, but I have always loved the misfits.
But lately I have been thinking about how the perfect eggs are a big lie. They are simply a lie told to us by a food system that keeps us detached from the reality of our food and where it comes from. And I feel that lie is a part of an even bigger lie about the uniformity of nature. It’s one Americans have told themselves so powerfully and so often that we can’t see the beauty in the diversity in the nature we are a part of.
Nature is beautiful in its diversity. Not all eggs are perfectly egg shaped. From our flock, we get round eggs, pointy eggs, skinny eggs, and we have one hen who just lays the tiniest little egg all the time. Sometimes, there are big eggs with double yolks. A couple of times we had an egg with a shell inside of an egg. It’s all fantastic and interesting. The egg companies take their “misfits” and use them in other products, so people who only get eggs in the grocery store never get to see the beauty in all that diversity. Oh, we miss so much!
When I researched to see what the egg companies did with their oddly-shaped eggs, I read that some people are scared to eat eggs that are oddly shaped. It’s so interesting to me that we are scared of what is different. I guess I can see a human needing to be wary of anything different, as you wouldn’t want to eat a bad egg, but we definitely need education because it’s not necessary to fear something just because it is different.
With all this in my mind, I decided last week to put some of my misfits into the egg cartons for the egg customers. It was just a couple of eggs in the 18 pack but hopefully enough to remind the wonderful humans who buy our eggs that not all eggs are the same size and shape. Goodness comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Eggs are everything, are they not?
Oh yes. Beautifully stated.
I have often thought about what I call ‘coloring book zoology,’ with its simplistic, stamped-out uniformity of kittens, bears, lions, giraffes, etc. When anti-evolutionists complain “no one has ever seen a {animal} turn into {other animal},” they’ve been spoofed in part by this false uniformity we subject ourselves to, as if Nature even *knows* what a ‘cat’ is, as if humans’ definition of a thing is somehow both its essence and its boundary. There are no such essences or boundaries in living nature.
I love the way ou put this. “There are no such essences or boundaries in living nature.”
My husband said once that a whole generation(s) of people have grown up not knowing what real food tastes like. He contends, rightly, I think, that the varieties of produce sold in stores are grown/chosen for things other than taste, mostly visual appeal. So I would say they’ve grown up not knowing what real food LOOKS like either. It really is perfectly imperfect.
So well said! Perfectly imperfect!
I love the connection you make here from eggs to humanity. It is a lesson that our world needs about the diversity found in nature. Humans are no exception.
It is so true. I think the way some people try to separate us from the rest of nature is such a mistake.