After recently discovering how much I appreciated and enjoyed honest to goodness real mango (see my Mango Madness post) I have been taking baby steps into the world of “real” food.

That sounds crazy doesn’t it?

Real food should be the norm, the thing I am most comfortable with, not the exception.

Yet here I am. A grown person whose adult life has mostly revolved around convenience. What is the easiest, cheapest, fastest way to get the food from point A to point B and be on my way to more “important” things.

Yet what could be more important than what I put into my body?

So…. this weeks baby step was fresh, organic, “real” eggs.

We have a chicken coop in our backyard and are zoned for chickens (no roosters.) Which got me thinking…..(much to my husband’s horror) and while I would LOVE to have my own little flock…. the chickens would have to share a yard with a high prey drive dog and that would only end in disaster.

On to Plan B.

Through Facebook Marketplace I was able to locate a wonderful woman the next town over, who has a mini farm complete with a free range flock of thirty laying hens.

As someone who routinely forgoes eggs due to moral conflicts with factory farming, this seemed like an ideal solution.

So five dollars became a dozen eggs and here we are.

These eggs are so beautiful I almost didn’t want to eat them. Brown, blue, green….not a white egg in the clutch. They almost look like art.

My husband and I had some this morning. And while he said “They taste like eggs….” I believe there WAS a difference. They whipped up smoother and more yellow than store bought eggs. They tasted richer and seemed more filling.

Of course this could all be in my head.

In all of us however, somewhere between the head and the heart, I believe there is a compass. And my compass is leading me not toward grand adventures. Not at the moment anyway. At this moment, my compass is leading me to small destinations, to eggs from a local farmer. My compass is leading me to the ground, to the hen house, to the source. At this moment, my compass is leading me to simplicity. My compass is leading me home.