egg hunt.

Ok, Twitter. Now you're just showing off.

We'd hit something of a roadblock with the post we were intending to... post... this morning. When coffee failed to fix the problem, we knew we were in trouble. And so we turned to our old standby: procrastination. No sooner did we log on to @gogreenologist than we heard from @onefoodguy, asking about where to get farm-fresh eggs. #Eureka!

Oh, eggs. We love eggs. They're full of protein and OMEGA-3s, they can be sweet or savory, hard or soft, scrambled or un-scrambled, carried on spoons, and hidden in the out-of-doors. And wow, are they cheap.

There are times at which we do not love eggs, however; this mostly has to do with the way the egg is introduced to the world. Is it laid, free of hormones, chemicals and antibiotics, in a town we have heard of, where its mother is allowed to peck and scratch and bob her head in the open air as free as her little chicken heart desires? Or is it pumped full of junk we can't pronounce on a commercial farm somewhere in Indiana and laid in a giant warehouse by a hen who's never seen the light of day? There's a big difference, and we can taste it.

The point is, local is better for more reasons than just the carbon emissions created in the shipping of goods. Local eggs, for example, from the small-production dairy farms around Massachusetts, are more likely to be hormone/antibiotic-free and laid from hens who are actually allowed to free range (none of that "open-cage" stuff). Why do we care about this? Aside from the fact that we figure we're exposed to more chemicals than we'd like just by breathing and don't think we need any more from our food, local eggs, in our experience, actually taste better. For reals, yo. Flipping delicious. They're creamier, more flavorful, and the yolks (we swear) are the yellowest yellow we have ever seen. (Probably because free-range chickens eat leafy greens, which help turn their yolks yellow. How do commercial farmers get yellow yolks? They put dye in the chicken feed. Yup.)

Where can you get your hands on some local eggs? Lots of places. If you want to stick to the mean streets of Boston (or Cambridge or Somerville), we've listed the places we've found the little local ovums below. If you feel like daytrippin' for your dairy (do it, do it!) check out FarmFresh.org (a Rhode Island-based site, but works for MA, too), and search their database for a farm to visit and buy from directly.

One final thing we love about eggs: shells. Go here to see all the glorious ways in which you can harness the power of what you probably thought was nothing more than a fragile little membrane. Think again!

Find local eggs at these locally owned businesses:

Boston:

Savenor's Market
Lionette's Market
Foodie's Urban Market
South End Formaggio

Cambridge:

Savenor's Market
Formaggio Kitchen
Harvest Co-op
Sofra Bakery

Somerville:

Kickass Cupcakes
Sherman Market
Dave's Fresh Pasta

Of course, it's always a good idea to call before you go; inventory at a lot of these places is small, just like the farms they source. Happy hunting, folks.