I love a good farm fresh egg! And because we have our own chickens, we use a lot of them. Though the month of January was a lean production month, the hens just didn't get enough daylight and some days we only got two or three eggs. I had to buy several dozen eggs from the grocery store and I couldn't help comparing the color and taste to what my eggs are like.
I have been grinding the eggshells and I thought i'd show you how I like to do it.
Eggshells provide calcium, I like to feed them right back to the chickens, much better than buying oyster shells in my opinion. And I've heard you can add them to your tomato plants as you're planting to help with tomato rot. I'll be trying this this spring!
I have a crock on my counter that I toss the eggshells into every day. I try not to stack them tight so that they can dry. They need a few days to completely dry before grinding. I've heard you can put them in the oven but haven't tried this.
Then, I put them in a large zipper plastic bag and crush them up a bit to make them more compact.
I suppose you could stop at this stage, or crush them completely with the rolling pin, but I've been using a coffee grinder to get them really fine. It's one I never use, I think it would be hard to clean it, better to keep it separate I think. Sometimes they can be found for cheap at a thrift store.
I do my grinding in my laundry/mud room as it can be a little dusty. After grinding about six or eight small batches, I'm done!
It feels good to reuse and not just pitch these in the trash. And I know there are many other good uses for them as well…
