Image it: you’re standing within the dairy aisle on the grocery retailer, about to seize a dozen eggs. It needs to be a simple merchandise to examine off your checklist—however you’re rapidly overwhelmed by what seems like one million choices. Immediately, it looks as if you’re taking a take a look at you didn’t research for as an alternative of selecting up a weekly staple.

I’ve actually been there. If you recognize me, you recognize I like eggs, and eat them at any time when the chance arises (aka virtually on daily basis, generally greater than as soon as). I would like my eggs to style nice, and I care that they had been humanely raised. However even with love and good intentions, I don’t truly know which labels imply that I’m getting what I would like. So I made a decision to search out out.

To get began, I talked to Kevin Phelps, VP of Farm Operations for Nellie’s Free Vary, which is a part of the Pete & Gerry’s household of manufacturers. I requested: is there some sort of shortcut I can use after I purchase eggs? What are the magic phrases to search for?

“The ‘Licensed Humane’ label paired with the time period “free-range” is the sure-fire technique to monitor down humanely raised eggs,” Kevin informed me. He defined that, whereas the time period “free-range” is federally regulated, the USDA’s pointers should not detailed sufficient to belief these phrases alone. That’s why a 3rd occasion certifier, just like the “Licensed Humane” label, is one of the simplest ways to know you’re actually getting free-range eggs. “With no sturdy third occasion certifier…hens may be confined to screened-in porches or cement and nonetheless be thought of free-range,” he mentioned. He went on to elucidate that the entire farmers within the Nellie’s and Pete & Gerry household of manufacturers observe the Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) Licensed Humane Pasture-Raised or Free-Vary requirements—and that they had been truly the primary egg producer within the nation to realize that standing, manner again in 2003.

Up to now, I obtained it. My subsequent query was about cage-free. Is that no good? Seems, probably not. “Cage-free hens, sometimes housed in massive industrial buildings containing a whole lot of hundreds of hens, dwell inside metal aviary programs and don’t go outdoors,” Kevin mentioned. “Free-range hens, alternatively, have “free vary” to maneuver about each inside their barns and outside within the pasture.”

I beloved the sound of that. Much more, I beloved that he referred to the hens as “our ladies,” and informed me that, as a result of they’re outdoors at the least six hours a day at a naked minimal (excepting excessive climate, in fact) and might interact in instinctual behaviors like scratching, taking mud baths, and foraging for worms and grubs, they find yourself happier, which in flip produces thicker shells, brilliant orange yolks, and viscous whites of their eggs.

Lastly glad that I knew what to do within the egg aisle, I mentioned goodbye to my new farm good friend and went again to the shop. As a fast experiment, I picked up Nellie’s Licensed Humane Free-Vary eggs in addition to one other carton that was labeled solely “cage-free.” I cracked each eggs alongside one another, blended them each into omelets, and positive sufficient: Nellie’s yolks had been brighter, and after they had been able to eat, that they had a richer style.

Nellie’s and Pete & Gerry’s household of manufacturers has greater than 200 household farms throughout 14 states—all sufficiently small for every household to handle the operations on their very own. I feel that may clarify using “our ladies”: these farmers actually care about their livestock, they usually produce a greater product due to it.

If all this scrumptious, free-range egg speak has you craving an omelet, properly, identical. Listed below are some recipes to get you began—together with just a few of the non-omelet selection, too.