What's in Season: Local yolks are golden at Harvest Moon Farm

Photos By AMY SOWDER

By AMY SOWDER

While egg prices and availability have been a touchy topic for many a shopper these days, it’s business as usual at the farm store at Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard in North Salem.

During the winter season, there’s always been a two-carton limit for each customer, said the farm store’s general manager, Kristina Jahaly.

That’s because the 800 hens at Harvest Moon’s 1,200-acre sister farm lay fewer eggs during the cold season. 

“Our eggs are sought-after for their color, taste and nutritional value,” Jahaly says about the free-range, hormone-free, antibiotic-free eggs.

She hasn’t seen a change in their customer base since the drastic changes in the egg market the last four months.

These farm-fresh, pasture-raised eggs are $8 for a dozen plus a 25-cent carton deposit, which is quite competitively priced in the egg market nationwide, after H5N1 virus, or bird flu, led to the culling of tens of millions of hens late last year, a challenge that’s continuing today. The average retail price in the northeast for conventional eggs rose $1.31 per dozen in the three weeks prior to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Egg Market Report published Feb. 21. And cage-free eggs are running an average of $4 higher, a steeper price spread than before.

But step away from the supermarket economy and factory farms, and meet your neighborhood feathered friends, Harvest Moon’s two breeds of chickens: comets and Americanas. They’re raised entirely outdoors with multiple chicken trailers that they scuttle to at night on their own, for warmth.

Comets are an exceptional egg-producing breed. They’re hardy and “great brown egg layers,” Jahaly says. “Some breeds are more prolific egg layers, producing 300 to 340 eggs a year.”

The Americana hens, representing a cross between the Araucana and Ameraucana breeds, lay beautiful pastel blue and green-colored eggs that customers love.

These Harvest Moon birds come and go as they please. Light and warmth signal a hen’s reproductive system to lay eggs, so fewer daylight hours and cold temperatures mean fewer eggs. Many farmers add a bit of light in the morning and night in the henhouse to encourage winter laying.

“We supplement our trailers with lights to lengthen their day a little longer, like the daylight they have in the warm months,” Jahaly says.

Local eggs from smaller farms are usually more expensive than what you find in the refrigerated supermarket aisle, but now, the price difference isn’t so noticeable, while the quality still is, she says.

“There really is no comparison. You might as well get quality,” Jahaly says. “Our eggs have a deep orange yolk due to their diet of grass and insects, and their feed is supplemented in winter months with grain, but they can choose whether or not to eat that.”

Harvest Moon sells its eggs only at the farm store, where locally grown vegetables, meat, dairy and baked goods can also tempt shoppers. Typically, when there’s a surplus of eggs in the summer, occasionally Mount Kisco Seafood will carry some cartons too, but it’s not something to depend on, she says. The farm also donates surplus eggs to local food banks, pantries, rescues and such organizations.

Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard is located at 130 Hardscrabble Road, North Salem. For more information. visit harvestmoonfarmandorchard.com.