Local farms not involved in egg recall

While some 380 million eggs are being removed from grocery stores, wholesale warehouses and restaurant refrigerators in other parts of the country, the dozen or so cartons for sale Tuesday at Fiddleheads in New London sat stacked and ready to go home with cooks eager to hard boil, poach, scramble, fry or bake them into frittatas.

Like the few large and many small egg farms throughout the state, none of the five eastern Connecticut farms that supply eggs to Fiddleheads have been involved in the massive recall of salmonella-contaminated eggs.

Hundreds of people have been sickened in the outbreak thus far - the latest Centers for Disease Control report notes a recent spike of 1,900 cases of illness and estimates that at least 1,200 of those are from bacteria-laden eggs from two Iowa farms.

At Fiddleheads and other sellers of local eggs, the main effect of the recall is likely to be a further increase in what's already been a growing demand, said Ellen Anthony, bulk buyer at the co-op.

"A lot of people want eggs that are less likely to be raised on factory farms, and the staff at Fiddleheads has been to all the farms that supply our eggs, so we know how they're run; we've seen their chickens," said Anthony, adding that the co-op sells about 60 dozen eggs per week.

Baldwin Brook Farm in Canterbury is among Fiddleheads' egg suppliers. With 250 laying hens, the farm sells about 125 dozen a week at its farm stand and four stores in southeastern Connecticut, including Fiddleheads.

"We're sold out of our eggs most of the time," farmer Chris Newton said. "People are wanting to know the farmer and the food source, to see the chickens."

In the nine years Baldwin Brook Farm has had laying hens, "we've never had an issue with any disease," Newton said. "I know my birds, and they know me."

Thus far, no eggs from either of the two Iowa farms involved in the recall have turned up in spot checks at grocery stores and other outlets in Connecticut, said Wayne Kasacek, assistant director of the state Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Regulation and Inspection.

"There is no reason to believe the eggs were distributed this far east," he said. "But the real problem is in how the industry has concentrated into the hands of large producers, so that when something goes wrong, it goes really wrong."

By state law, Kasacek's department checks only producers that provide eggs to restaurants and cafeterias, of which there are only two - one in New Hartford and the other at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Because of its size, the largest egg producer in the state, the Bozrah-based Koffkoff farms, falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The hundreds of the state's small egg producers - the ones that sell at roadside stands, farmers markets, gourmet shops and food co-ops - are exempt from state or federal oversight.

But both Kasacek and Michael J. Darre, extension poultry specialist and animal science professor at UConn, have confidence that the small egg producers are running the kind of operations that keep the chances of salmonella contamination at a minimum. At small farms, farmers tend to have more and closer contact with their chickens than large factory operations, so keeping their daily workplace disease-free is a matter of their own personal health as well as that of their customers.

"The chickens at these small farms are healthy and clean," Darre said. "The chances of getting sick from their eggs is pretty small. Most of the backyard people are doing a good job."

Overall, he noted, less than .01 percent of eggs from all sources are contaminated with salmonella. The two Iowa farms sparked concern, he said, most likely because the levels of salmonella contamination inspectors found were very high. But since some risk will always exist, even in eggs from the best-run farms, thorough cooking of all eggs, washing hands after handling and avoiding cross-contamination of raw eggs and other foods on utensils and cooking surfaces has long been recommended by food safety experts.

"There's no reason for people to get scared. We still have a safe food supply," Darre said, noting that the numbers of recalled eggs, while large, are still just a small fraction of the total consumed in the U.S. yearly - about 270 per person, including both eggs baked into dishes and those served as the main ingredient.

In the past couple of years Darre has noted a marked increase in the numbers of people interested in raising their own laying hens in their backyards or small farms. Workshops he's offered around the state over the past year regularly fill up mostly with those wanting the eggs strictly for their own use, but some are planning to have enough to sell. He noted that over the past year both New Haven and Hamden passed ordinances allowing residents to keep up to six hens each in their backyards.

"It's one of the few livestock projects you can do on your back stoop," he said.

While many are newcomers to backyard egg farming, Anthony said she's been doing it for several years at her New London home. She uses most of the eggs herself, and gives others away to friends and family.

"It's a hobby," she said. "It's fun."

j.benson@theday.com