THE EGG LADIES
In rural America, most everyone raised chickens and had plenty of eggs on hand. People sold their excess eggs or traded them for groceries and other products. For those that lived in town, or those that did not have chickens, they always had a source for purchasing good, fresh farm eggs. In other words, they had an “egg lady” to call on or even get them delivered to their home. Nearly every farm town had a hatchery or feed store that purchased eggs, candled them, and sent cases of them on the train to larger cities. Most grocery stores in our rural communities also purchased eggs for resale in their stores. We never heard of an egg shortage and were always blessed with an over surplus of those important little grocery items.
From time to time, I have had chickens and enjoyed having my own supply of eggs. Even with eight or ten hens, I had more than enough eggs for family, neighbors and friends. But whenever I did not have my own personal source, I always had an egg lady. For a number of years, my neighbor, Gertrude Ahlers was my “egg lady.” She always seemed happy to have folks stop at her lovely little farm home to buy eggs and often insisted you have a cup of coffee and a cookie before heading on your way. I don’t ever recall paying over fifty cents-a-dozen for eggs. In addition to those dandy eggs, her delicious cookies and pie were right up there with my mother’s. Gertrude’s recipes in the good ol’ Clearfield Cookbook are probably some of those most popular. I use her pie crust recipe to this day and always receive compliments on it; sure enough, it calls for eggs.
Buying eggs from Gertrude Ahlers was not the only frequent stop we enjoyed, as many people had milk cows and dairies, such as our neighbors, Raymond and Johnnie (Cecelia) Kartak. Again, the Kartaks were always happy to have people stop. We would take one or two glass gallon jars that Johnnie would fill with fresh, cold milk direct from the cooling tank. After letting those jars of milk set in my refrigerator for a few hours, the cream would rise to the top which I would skim off for cooking and sometimes making butter. Johnnie’s cooking and recipes are tied with Gertrude’s for being the best, and I’m sure part of the reason is due to using those farm-fresh eggs and delicious milk and cream.
Gone are the days of having local egg ladies and dairies. Our children and my husband miss those days as much as I do, as they loved making a trip for eggs or milk…partly because of the warm welcome they always received and, of course, the visits and those delicious snacks. There seems to be an uptick in an interest in purchasing fresh milk, farm fresh eggs, as well as an interest in home-cooking. Hopefully, due to the recent egg crises, we will see the return of the local egg ladies.
