The "Queen of the Coop" answers all of your egg-centric questions

Eggs have obviously been a hot topic the past few months. In order to get a bit more information on eggs overall, egg cookery and the entire concept of raising chickens so you have an near-endless supply of eggs, Salon Food spoke with Lisa Steele, 5th generation chicken keeper, the author of The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook and the "Queen of the Coop." Fried Egg with Asparagus and Hollandaise It's been a tricky few months when it comes to exorbitant egg prices — for someone looking to possibly become a "chicken keeper," what are your tips for starting? Words you can ignore include: Natural — all eggs are natural — Non-GMO — neither chickens or eggs have been genetically modified — Antibiotic or hormone-free — laying hens aren't given antibiotics or hormones — Vegetarian-fed — chickens are omnivores, not vegetarians — Fresh or farm fresh — no actual meaning, purely a marketing ploy — Local — all it means is that the eggs have to have been laid within 400 miles of where they are put in the carton — not exactly "local", is it? — — Cage free — while its true that the hens aren't confined to tiny cages, they actually have a higher mortality rate and suffer more aggression than caged hens since they're still all just crammed into a warehouse — Free Range — this merely means that the hens have access to the outdoors, but doesn't specify if that's a cement slab or a pasture and doesn't guarantee that a hen will actually ever step foot outside in her lifetime Words that have meaning include: Certified humane — these farms adhere to strict guidelines about how the laying hens are feed and housed — Pasture raised — this is the gold standard when it comes to hen welfare since they hens spend the majority of their time outdoors foraging for bugs and weeds — Organic — if eating an organic diet is important to you, then this is a label to look for — Omega-3 enriched — adding flax to a hen's diet allows her to direct some of those omega 3-s to her eggs Do you have a preference on egg color?