Cutting Edge

Got a haircut today. Picked up some chicken feed and corn, and enough 2x4s to start a 16x8 winter coop for the chicks. Stained 42 2x4x8s and will start framing tomorrow. Just in time, too, if the NY Times story is accurate:

Suddenly, the Hunt Is On for Cage-Free Eggs

Sally Ryan for The New York Times

Indiana hens that produce for Egg Innovations, a supplier to Ben and Jerry’s and Wolfgang Puck.

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By KIM SEVERSON

Published: August 12, 2007

The toy industry had its Tickle Me Elmo, the automakers the Prius and technology its iPhone. Now, the food world has its latest have-to-have-it product: the cage-free egg.

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Sally Ryan for The New York Times

The eggs are coated in a thin layer of oil to protect their shells.

The eggs, from chickens raised in large, open barns instead of stacks of small wire cages, have become the latest addition to menus at universities, hotel chains like Omni and cafeterias at companies like Google. The Whole Foods supermarket chain sells nothing else, and even Burger King is getting in on the trend.

All that demand has meant a rush on cage-free eggs and headaches in corporate kitchens as big buyers learn there may not be enough to go around.