Ever wonder where your eggs come from?  From a chicken right?  Well of course they come from chickens, but did you ever wonder how they arrive to your table?  I had the first hand opportunity to see the chicken who lays the egg, the machines that take them, clean them, magically snatch them up, and put them in the carton, and the people who make it happen.

Our first evening included a wonderful dinner with the talented Chef Jeffrey Saad, World’s Fastest Omelet Maker, Howard Helmer, Clint Hickman of Hickman Family Farms and his lovely wife, and the wonderful ladies from Edelman and American Egg Board.  The Mayor even stopped by!  The next morning we would be on our way to Hickman Egg Farm after sharing good food with new friends, with none other than scrumptious egg dishes for breakfast.

On the bus drive over, Clint gave us some background, pointed out some things along the way and how farmers really are struggling.  We even saw some dairy farms, now vacant as a result of bankruptcy…perfectly good farms but no way to keep up.

About Hickman Egg Farm

Hickman’s Family Farms has been family-owned and operated in Arizona since 1944. In its early days, Hickman’s entered the Arizona food service market by providing fresh, locally produced eggs direct to small independent restaurants, and directly to consumers. Every afternoon, one little refrigerated panel truck was sufficient to deliver the day’s production to coffee shops in Glendale and to Carnation Restaurant in the big city of Phoenix. Bill and Gertie Hickman displayed the entrepreneurial insight that has kept Hickman’s competitive for decades.

Going Green

Hickman’s Family Farms utilize stringent methods of conservation and recycling to remain as environmentally-friendly (“green”) as possible. Wash water is recycled and reused, and manure is dried, ground, and turned into high quality fertilizer. By the time we are through at even our largest facilities, we actually discard into dumpsters less waste than the average apartment building does in a day.

Ya know what they say….that from the manure, flowers grow!  Everything is put to good use at Hickman Egg Farm, right down to the egg shells that are used for compost.

Billy and Clint Hickman

Once we arrived, we put on our booties, our coats and fancy hats.  This is a precaution to protect the chickens from an form of contamination and or disease that may be carried in.  I don’t think I have ever seen so many chickens in one place, or eggs for that matter.  I was in complete awe of the entire process.  We arrived right at their peak laying time, and boy were they a chatty bunch!  You could barely hear what Clint and Billy were saying over chicken talk.  Billy, explained that even chickens get a nap time during the day and all you can hear is a low murmur, and then they also get a bed time like we do.  Egg laying is hard work people.

Don’t I Look Cute?  Just Agree!

It was fascinating to see the eggs roll out on to mini conveyor belts, get carried to where they are cleaned and sanitized then snatched up and packaged for market.   We stood amongst all these eggs in the warehouse and all those eggs must leave within a 36 hour time period or the eggs would be through the roof.  We are talking about millions of chickens that don’t stop laying just because you have a warehouse full…that’s just how many eggs their were.

From Chicken, To Cleaning/Sanitizing, To Package

This is Billy and Clint’s Mom Gertie, she is a great lady with tremendous spunk!

There was an incredible amount of information to digest and it was an incredible experience to get a behind the scenes look into what it takes to get fresh eggs to our table and I have a new respect for our farmers, because they are feeding our country.  And as part of the Good Egg Project, egg farmers are donating up to 12 million eggs per year,  to food banks and charities.  We can also do our part by joining in and committing to live more healthfully and give back by pledging to “Eat good. Do good every day.”  For every person that makes the pledge, farmers will donate one egg to help feed America up to 1 million eggs.

After and eye opening tour of egg production at its finest, we heard from Mary Lee Chin a registered dietitian about the nutrition benefits of just one egg, and we were treated to some totally awesome cooking demonstrations by Jeffrey Saad and Howard Helmer.  We learned some easy egg recipes from Jeffrey and how to whip up an omelet in no time with Howard (world’s fastest omelet maker).  I was quite enthused to try the omelet making at home, since all of mine usually look like a scrambled mess.  But after learning the key to making omelets, I felt like a whiz in the kitchen when I rolled out three perfect and delicious omelets.

Mary Lee Chin Telling Us About The Nutritional Values Of The Egg

Egg Nutrition

Howard Helmer Showing Us How To Make a Perfect Omelet in Seconds!

Jeffrey Saad Shared Some Wonderful Egg Recipes and His Passion For Making Good Food

I also have to say that I especially enjoyed this experience.  The Hickmans, including Mom Gertie (thank you for all the wonderful stories and the golf balls too  LOL) were so welcoming and I felt right at home.  Jeffrey, Howard, Mary Lee, all the folks from Edelman and everyone in attendance were some of the warmest and nicest individuals.  Thank you so much for a great experience and new friends.  This is definitely something that I won’t forget.  Thank you to the Hickmans for opening your doors to Mom Bloggers to share what you do to make it possible for us to have food on our tables daily…it was a real pleasure!

**Thank you to Edelman Pr and the Good Egg Project for funding this trip and making it possible**