The Incredible, Edible Egg
We eat a LOT of eggs. Well, C does especially. And it’s important to him that we eat free-range eggs. You know, from chickens like this [click to watch the video short].
Those are our neighbor’s chickens, who often end up in our yard foraging for tasty worms and such. You’re welcome, chickens! I wish we could eat their eggs but we don’t know our neighbors.
Fortunately, the woman who cleans our villa has chickens like this, and she brings us fresh eggs every week. We give her 1000 lek, or ~10 Euro, for ~30 eggs. She carries them over in a plastic bag, no carton necessary.
We often eat through more than that in a week, so we supplement with pasture raised eggs that we buy from various independent markets. Those eggs are 40 lek (0.40 Euro) each and you can buy as few a one or as many as you want. C often fills a container; he can fit about 42 in one of these.
I recently discovered that we can add pasture-raised eggs to our order from the agricultural cooperative where we’ve been getting produce and such from for the same price, so I’ll probably do that from now on to supplement.
Of course, you can also buy eggs at any supermarket. The eggs from here in Albania seem to simply be called red (brown) or white. There are also lots of eggs from Italy: Some regular, some organic, and occasionally some free-range. The price varies based on multiple factors, as you might expect.
Interestingly, eggs come in packages of 4, 6, 8, 10, or 15 depending on the brand and where they’re from, but not in a dozen. We’ve found this to be true across much of Europe as we’ve traveled. Maybe a dozen is an Imperial measurement thing? Not sure!
Photos above of regular eggs (not organic or free range):
Top left: 8 count red/brown eggs from an Albanian provider are 279 lek (~2.79 Euro)
Top right: 10 count white and red/brown eggs from another Albanian provider are 239 lek (~2.39 Euro)
Bottom: 15 count red/brown eggs (orange label) from the generic/store brand is 299 lek (~2.99 Euro), whereas the cost for an Albanian brand (green label on the right) is 429 lek (~4.29 Euro)
I happened to find some free range eggs from Italy that were on promo, making them a good deal compared to what we otherwise spend to supplement our free range egg habit:
Anyway, what’s the egg situation where you are? Inquiring minds want to know! Because apparently eggs are to 2025 as toilet paper was to 2020, at least in some parts of the world (cough cough).