It begins on a cold night in January, Sophia buys a 1/2 dozen carton of eggs to prepare the Chocolate Champurrado Tart crust for a cooking class she is teaching.  There is an extra egg so I hardboil it for my salad. As I am eating I happily exclaim "I think this egg has two yolks in it!" "Oh yeah. They all do." Sophia says that all of the eggs in the carton had two yolks.  Every single one.

I know that double yolks happen from time to time. My first (and only) encounter with a double yolked egg was an exciting novelty. Not so this time. We call the egg company and they explain that sometimes chickens lay eggs with two yolks. Yes, we say, but this was ALL OF THEM. The woman replies, "Some people would consider it lucky."

Not satisfied. I google it:

"double yolk eggs"

I find countless blogs and online forums where others are experiencing the same thing:

Thursday January 4, 2007: Multi Yolk Eggs

Monday June 30, 2008: Freaky Eggs

Saturday October 18, 2008: Tainted Food? Double Yolk Egg

Saturday January 3, 2009: Double Yolks: An Omen of Plentitude?

It seems that eggs with two yolks are so prevelant that there is even an online debate about the calorie difference between eggs with one yolk and two (no consensus). 

From google I learn that 1 in every 1,000 eggs has a double yolk. I learn that early layers (spring chickens, if you will) are the most common perpetrators and that eggs get double yolks when ovulation occurs too quickly. I also learn that it is an inherited trait in certain (unspecified) breeds.

I am still not satisfied.

I call my dad because he teaches biology.  "Twins are pretty rare, especially in the chicken world." He promises to investigate further.

This is not over.

In December when we were filming our Citrus Grove Salad episode, Korky Vann of the Hartford Courant stopped by for an interview. Read the interview here then watch the video!

I will jump at any excuse to eat fermented cabbage, so New Year's Day makes me especially happy because today is the official day for eating sauerkraut. It is supposed to be good luck, I think the idea is that you are eating the sourness out of the year to come.

Coyote Chocolate Chai

I am sitting at The Tea House in Santa Fe working on a film grant-- but wanted to pause for a moment and publicly acknowledge that I am drinking something delicious. They specialize in "cowboy chai" here, which is basically chai but with some fun southwestern spices, like chiles and pinon, thrown in. I came here a few days ago and tried their original, but my friend Summer had the coyote chocolate and I tasted hers, it was so tasty that I ordered it this time. It's spicy from pink and black peppercorns! It also has chocolate shavings. All of the chais are served with foamy milk in tin camping cups, which somehow makes the whole experience that much more fun.