So, a couple of years ago, I was trying to figure out how to store our extra eggs through winter, since our girls lay far less eggs during winter and sometimes stop laying altogether. With a large family and lots of dogs to feed, and an abundance of extra eggs in the spring, we needed to learn how we could save them without refrigeration. I found the following video:
Highlights to remember from the video:
Use only clean, unwashed, farm-fresh eggs
Use only hydrated lyme (also known as pickling lyme)
Use clean water, even filtered or distilled
Use 1 ounce (in weight) of lyme to 1 quart of water
Put eggs small point down
Make sure your container is sealed during storage (you don't want evaporation
Store in a dark, safe place
Retains 100% freshness and high quality eggs for 8 months; some people report retains freshness up to 2 years.
So, we tried it! Yeah!
And it was .... a complete failure!!! Not because the method does not work, but because this busy mama did not have a safe place to store our 5 gallon buckets! I had 3 buckets full of our best eggs (over 450 eggs). I had the buckets sitting on the kitchen floor. Bad idea!
Needless to say, for some reason, my then 7-year old daughter decided to move the buckets, picked them up, and dropped them where she wanted them to be instead! Oh no!!! Tragedy!!! Horror!!! She told me the buckets made funny sounds when she set them down! My husband and son took the buckets out and emptied them. There was nothing salvageable! Sigh.
And it worked really well!
At the same time that I began trying this, I gave my mom a couple 5-gallon buckets and enough lyme to fill them with the eggs from her chickens. She has a nice, safe pantry where she stores her buckets. She has reported to me how well it works. The last time she told me how it was going, she had stored them for over 18 months and they were still just as fresh as her daily eggs!
So, I would say this method is a winner!
I will be trying this method again - starting today - with a safe (hopefully) location where none of my lovely children will be able to break my eggs!
I hope this has encouraged and blessed you!
Seeking Shalom for All!