Farmer's Market Brown Eggs

Eggs at the Saturday farmer's market come in recycled cardboard cartons with a handwritten sticker showing the farm name and collection date. They cost $7 for a dozen, about $4 more than the grocery store. The shells are different colors: pale blue, speckled brown, and cream. Slightly dirty with bits of straw still stuck to them, which felt alarming the first time but now feels like evidence. Yolks are a deep orange that stains the pan and makes grocery store eggs look pale by comparison. I started buying them because my housemate insisted the taste was different. She was right. The flavor is richer and the whites hold together better when you fry them instead of spreading thin across the pan. Each carton has 12 eggs but they're different sizes, some noticeably larger than others. That's a reminder that standardization is a choice the industrial food system makes for efficiency, not quality. Most Saturdays I go to the market now. Partly for the eggs and partly because walking through the stalls at 9 in the morning with a coffee is one of the better routines I've found this year. Buying food from the person who produced it adds a dimension that scanning a barcode can't replicate. Worth the extra $4.