One of Those Little Farmhouse Things
There’s almost always a basket of fresh eggs sitting on our farmhouse counter in the spring and summer months. With fresh eggs coming in daily, I’ve learned it helps to have a simple old-fashioned system for keeping them rotated through the kitchen. Nothing fancy. Just a way to keep the freshest eggs together, the oldest eggs easy to grab first, and the whole thing moving along naturally with the rhythm of farm life. Now around here, we get more eggs than we care to eat so the extras get handed out or sold. There are always piles of eggs to go around until the colder months hit. But in the farmhouse, the newest eggs stay tucked in a basket on the counter while the older ones get moved beside the stove into a little bowl sitting beneath my vintage milk glass hurricane lamp, ready to be baked, fried or boiled.
The Counter Basket Holds the Freshest Eggs
When eggs make their way inside, they go right into my countertop basket first. This sits far away from the stove, but when walking through the house catches your eye. See, I love to keep eggs out in sight as a little spring and summertime decor. With our eggs being blue, green, deep brown and some even pink/purplish, I just think they’re beautiful! Fresh, unwashed eggs last a good long while sitting out at room temperature and keeping them away from the stove and the main kitchen area means we don’t get the freshest eggs mixed with the oldest.
The Bowl by the Stove Holds the Oldest
Beside my stove sits a vintage milk glass hurricane lamp with a small bowl attached to it, and that’s where the older eggs get moved once the basket starts filling up again. Those are the eggs I reach for first when making breakfast, baking cakes, or fulfilling the never ending request for boiled eggs from my sweet Ila Dawn and my husband. Keeping them right beside the stove makes it easy to remember which eggs should be used first without needing labels, dates, or much thought at all. And no rotten eggs wasting away in the bottom of one of my beloved baskets elsewhere.
Keeping the Eggs Moving Through the Farmhouse Kitchen
Whenever the bowl near the stove starts getting low, I move a few eggs down from the counter basket and refill the basket with the newest beauties. And when both places are full to the brim? Well, I know we better get to eating! Over time it’s become less of a “system” and more just part of the daily flow of the kitchen. Sometimes when we haven’t done our diligence and both the basket and bowl brim over, I will add a place here and there around the kitchen as a middle ground. Not the oldest, but not the freshest. And the line moves along just the same- freshest in the basket, basket to by the sink, sink to the stove. The eggs move naturally from coop to kitchen then into biscuits, pound cakes, and cast iron skillets before the cycle begins all over again.
But Not That Little Yellow Kitchen Table
While I may add a bowl here and there depending on how many eggs we have, let me tell ya one place eggs never go. Oh no, I’ve had my fair share of broken eggs hit the floor anytime I have left them on my little yellow kitchen table with a certain toddler boy lurking around. He can’t help himself at seeing the pretty colors, and before I know it there’s a dozen broken eggs covering the floor and some little red curls.
Why I Like an Old-Fashioned Egg System
Simple, pretty, and practical all at once
I could easily tuck every egg away in cartons in the refrigerator, washed and perfectly clean, but I love having them out where they’re part of the farmhouse kitchen itself. The basket on the counter and the little bowl by the stove feel practical in the same way old farmhouse kitchens always did. Useful things made beautiful simply because they were used every day. And when the eggs are constantly being rotated and used, the whole system stays simple without much effort at all. Nothing gets stuck in the back of the fridge, to be tossed later once stinky and rotten. They are where I can see them and that is not just practical, but adds that old farmhouse charm I so dearly love.
It’s a simple little system, but it keeps our farmhouse kitchen running just how I like.
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