While my husband isn't as much of a scrambled egg fan, one of the meals I love to make when I'm flying solo for brekkie is a quick frittata in the cast iron skillet. Using some freebies he scored of pork kielbasa and fresh basil, I saute this up with some lovely pastured eggs and some goat cheese, and...voila!
While we raise ducks, as they get older they lay less, and at 6 are now taking the entire winter off. With that, we supplement with Vital Farms' pastured eggs. A lot of folks unfortunately are under the mistaken assumption that 'cage free' and 'free range' means they are outdoors. THEY ARE NOT. The *only* eggs that guarantee your birds have had regular time outdoors (not just "access", which is meaningless when there are 800 chickens inside a barn and one tiny door at the end that they're afraid to go out of) are eggs that are specified as Pastured.
Here's a good overview of the differences between the labels you see in the stores:
Caged Eggs: About 90% of eggs in the U.S. come from caged hens. The birds are confined to cages for their egg-laying lives and are given 67 square inches each. They eat a corn or soy diet.
Cage-Free Eggs: These birds have more room than caged hens, as they are each provided with less than 1 square foot. They are confined to the barns and eat a diet of corn or soy.
Free-Range Eggs: These hens are allotted less than 2 square feet per hen which is more than caged and cage-free hens, but don’t go outdoors too often. They are usually fed a corn or soy based diet.
Pasture-Raised: These hens are allotted at least 108 square feet per hen. They eat a combination of carefully balanced supplemental feed and whatever they can find in the dirt when they go outdoors including grass, worms and bugs. They are able to leave the barns early in the morning and are called back before nightfall.
(source: Food Network)
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