An Ohio Egg Adventure

A three day educational adventure gaining insight on the egg farming process within the state of Ohio.

Good morning, Columbus!

Our new home state of Ohio has been so good to us.  To me.  The many opportunities that have been provided never cease to amaze me.  I’m so very grateful for each and ever one.

Two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to find myself on the invite list of an amazing event put on by the Ohio Poultry Association in Columbus.  (The very first trip I’ve taken out of CLE where it was actually easy to jump on the highway and go!)  If you follow me on any social media channels, you likely saw I was on a grand #ohioeggs adventure!  I learned so much, ate too much, and met so many amazing people.  It’s taken me this long to go through the hundreds of photos and narrow it down to these which highlight the learning experiences of the trip.  Believe me, I’ve been talking eggs to almost everyone I’ve chatted with since returning home.

Did you know that Ohio ranks second in the United States in egg production?

The headquarters for Bob Evans is located in New Albany, Ohio.  The just moved into the space this Fall and it is nothing short of amazing.

This is one of the large kitchens within the space where they create and test recipes used for not only their restaurants but also their goods sold in retail stores.  Their Executive Chef, David Eisel, gave us a great tour of their spaces and then also cooked our eggs to order for breakfast.

I loved this room that they had set up for tasting panels.  This allows them to invite groups in and allow them to test new items that they are developing without influencing their opinions.  They tester simply lifts the silver door and the food is waiting for them.  I secretly would love to do that one day!

So many facts stuck with me from our trip and one involved this plate of food that was on display for us at breakfast.  The eggs are from an Ohio farm that has supplied shell eggs to EVERY Bob Evans restaurant in the country for the last 20 years.  How amazing is that?

And the spinach on the omelette?  Bob Evans knows within a square foot of where it was grown.  Mind blowing.

Former interior designer me loves that their building was LEED certified.  This basically means that many, MANY requirements were met to earn this certification of green building.

They even had one of their original sausage delivery trucks on display which we used as a great photo opportunity.

The farmer that produces all of the shell eggs for Bob Evans?  This is him.  The most kind and humble man you could ever hope to meet.

After our time at Bob Evans, we headed to see an actual egg farm operation.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but was absolutely in awe of the entire process.  What you’re looking at is six racks on either side of this aisle that spans the length of two football fields.  This is the second floor, below you’ll find the exact same setup.  Thousands and thousands of chickens.  Like 100,000 in this house to be exact.

These two men?  These are MY egg farmers.  Really.  I learned that the eggs I purchase here in Cleveland from two different stores are supplied by them.  I was and am beyond thrilled.  I know EXACTLY where my food is coming from.  I’ve been there.   

This farm is in the third generation.  They have workers that come from families where they are the third generation to work there.  I think that speaks volumes.  Their first and foremost concern from chick to hen is the happiness of the bird.  A happy bird lays eggs.  It’s a process that they do and do well, always receiving glowing reviews and practically perfect scores from inspectors.  

And I held a chicken!  She was so calm and didn’t seem to mind whatsoever.  The suits?  We wore them to protect the birds.  They are just as likely to catch viruses as humans are.  In fact, there’s a stipulation that you aren’t able to visit a farm within so many hours of having been at another to avoid any possibility of making them sick.  As I mentioned earlier, these are some well cared for chickens!

And this is a freshly laid egg.  As in still warm.   This is where the process begins.  You can see the conveyor belt below my hand in the photo that takes the eggs direct from the house into the packaging facility.  I’m sure you’ll be as surprised as I was to see how quick the process is from when the egg is laid to getting it to store shelves for purchase.

First the eggs are all washed.  This single machine is valued at over $2 million and houses the entire process of getting the eggs ready to package.

Then the eggs are checked for flaws and cracks.  The machine knows where each individual egg is at any given time.  Any eggs that are flawed are kicked out.

Eggs are then put into cartons and packaged.  This is where I spied the familiar box of the eggs I typically purchase.

After boxed and packaged, the eggs are then taken into the cooler where they are chilled and await transport to their final destination.  Again, this process is quick so that your eggs arrive to you super fresh.  At the most, these eggs will arrive on store shelves just three days after being laid.

These numbers at the end of your egg carton?  I now know what they all mean!  Here’s how you can learn more about the eggs you are purchasing:

099 = The Lunar calendar day.  These eggs were laid on the 99th day of the year.

P1089 = The plant number at which they were packaged.  You are able to look the plant number up on the USDA website.

5 = The line number at the plant where the carton was packaged.  If they’re finding several cartons with broken eggs, for example, they are able to look at the equipment and who was working that individual line to learn more about the problem.

EXP May 8 = The expiration date.

Hopefully you’ll find that info as useful as I did.  I actually checked the codes on the eggs that I purchased last week and confirmed that they indeed came from this farm.  I’m going to be honest, I was and still am totally geeked out by knowing this info.

The next day, we traveled to Columbus’ North Market.  A smaller scale version of Cleveland’s infamous Westside Market.  Although smaller in scale, it didn’t disappoint.  I love that it was so clean and brightly lit.  The vendors were also incredibly kind. 

What’s a learning experience about eggs without a little bit of decorating?  We dyed with natural dyes from fruit, stickers, melted wax from crayon onto hot eggs and painted with a mixture of food coloring and corn syrup.  This is where I admit that I do not like dying eggs as my wanting to make things look perfect personality does not lend itself to this activity.  Thus I went the crayon route as it was a little easier to control.  

Next on our agenda was several egg cooking demonstrations by the multi-talented Jim Chakeres, the executive vice president of OPA.  We learned out to make the perfect scrambled eggs and some amazing omelettes.  Considering that we’ve recently replaced our Saturday breakfast tradition of donuts with omelettes, I was thrilled!  

This was a faux version of Eggs Benedict.  I have grand plans for a knock-off recipe I’m hoping to execute this week.  Hello, runny yolks.  I puffy heart love you.

My favorite part of the demonstration was our own version of Chopped.  Each of us was given $10 to buy any ingredient we liked at the market.  We knew that Jim was going to cook with it, but didn’t have any idea what exactly what he’d be doing.  To add a degree of difficulty to things, I had selected a bottled green smoothie.  It turns out he made various deviled eggs with each ingredient selected for him.  He took it all in stride and paired my smoothie with someone else’s wasabi powder to create a “green eggs and ham”.  It was great!  My favorite was likely an egg with figs and a balsamic glaze.  So good!

I really can’t put into words how thankful I was to be a part of this event and to meet bloggers that I only knew of online.  Unfortunately, I only got photos with a few of them.  This is Aimee from Shugary Sweets.  Her Slow Cooker Balsamic Shredded Beef has been on our menu several times since I discovered it this Winter.

Loved meeting both of these ladies, although I had to laugh when someone pointed out after posting this photo on Instagram that I must be tall.  Why yes, yes I am.  In the Fall when I met some local bloggers, they were surprised that I was tall.  Do I come across as being short online?

Emily from Jelly Toast is 5′ and I’m 6′ so there was a bit of a height difference.  You must check out her blog and her amazing videos.  Her Easter egg video is just captivating. 

Courtney from Neighbor Food is the only blogger that I somewhat knew going into the event as we both participate in Sunday Supper each week.  She was just as warm and friendly as she comes across online.  

Believe me, I could share hundreds of additional photos and didn’t even touch on the amazing places we ate.  I swear I ate a dozen eggs over a two day period.  No complaints here!  

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly via e-mail.  I’d love to share what I learned and if I don’t have the answer, I definitely now know the people that do!

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Disclosure: I was invited by the Ohio Poultry Association to attend this event at their expense.  All opinions are, as always, my own.