From Farm to Table: How to Preserve Eggs and Be More Self-sufficient

Hang out with me as I work on preserving these eggs and chat about my plans for becoming more self sufficient here on our family's homestead.

1. Hard-boiling and peeling the eggs

As I mentioned before, my chickens have been producing an abundance of eggs lately. Over the weekend, I used around a dozen eggs to make my husband a week's worth of breakfast burritos.

However, I still have a substantial number of eggs left, so I plan to boil them. Some, I will use to make an egg salad, I will also use a few to prepare chicken salad, and the leftovers I will keep as snacks for my son.

This morning, I used my Instant Pot to hard-boil a large batch of eggs. Now, my eggs are chilling in ice water. I hate peeling hard-boiled eggs, but I've heard that chilling them first can make it easier.

2. Making egg salad

To make the egg salad, I first mash the eggs in a glass bowl.

Next, I add mayo and mix it in.

I season it with some salt and pepper, onion powder, and a little bit of Cajun seasoning. Usually, I throw in mustard, but I didn’t have any, so I added lemon juice for a little bit of acidity.

When this jar of mayo is finished, I have decided I am going to start making my own using our eggs.

The egg salad is complete so I am going to leave it in the fridge.

3. Caring for the chickens

Happy chickens are essential when being self-sufficient. Yesterday, I ran out to let the chickens out as snow was forecasted for six of the next ten days. It was probably the last day they could be out for a while.

Later that evening, my husband came home and watched our daughter, Cleo. I went to the coop for an extended period and laid down fresh hay. I also stocked the nesting boxes full of straw for when the chickens were cooped in.

I brought out my eggshells and fed them back to my homestead chickens. It provides them with the calcium they need to keep their shells hard.

Unfortunately, I forgot to grab an egg basket. So I put the eggs in my scrap basket and washed them instead.

4. My pasta plans

Because I have so many eggs right now, I’m considering taking a whole day off and cranking out a lot of pasta. I've decided I'd like to stop buying store-bought pasta anyways.

I thought that maybe I should block off a whole day for pasta making and drying it out. We are trying hard to be as self-sustaining as possible, so making pasta is a great idea.

5. Preparing the chicken salad

While Cleo was sleeping, I started preparing my chicken salad so that I would have something for lunch. Over the weekend, I had made roasted chicken quarters and mashed potatoes, but everyone fell asleep at five o'clock, so nobody ate.

Now, I'm going to strip the leftovers and turn them into chicken salad. It's a really quick and easy process.

I'll chop up three of these hard-boiled eggs and add those to the chicken salad with some lemon juice.

And just like that, my chicken salad is done. I prefer my salad to be a little dry, without a ton of mayo.

I like to eat my chicken salad in a tortilla with pickles, lettuce, and maybe a little tomato. I love this in the summer when we have all the summer veggies. Usually, I would add celery and raw onion, but I don't have either right now.

6. Buying a pig for meat

I have some exciting news to share - this weekend we will be buying our own pigs for meat, locally from our neighbor. They have informed us that they have a whole pig available which will be sent to the butcher over the weekend, meaning that we will have an abundance of pork very soon.

Last year, we purchased half a pig and found ourselves unsure of which cuts we would enjoy. As a result, we ended up making a lot of breakfast sausage and bacon.

This year, we have decided to make one batch of breakfast sausage, and the remaining Italian sausage. We were unable to find any Italian sausage last year, so we are thrilled to have the opportunity to try it this time around.

We are incredibly excited about this upcoming purchase and it has brought us a great deal of happiness.

7. Homestead plans

If you are considering self-sufficiency and homesteading, planning is key. My husband and I have been discussing our plans for the upcoming year and we have decided to focus on raising meat chickens in the spring.

We have decided to raise two batches of meat chickens, one in the spring and one in the fall. Although my husband has experience in this from his childhood, this is the first time we will be doing it on our own.

We are also expanding our chicken coop in preparation for our meat chickens. In addition to chickens, we are considering raising turkeys as well. We figure that if we are already raising birds, we might as well raise different types of birds.

We are passionate about being more self-sufficient and our goal for this year is to have 80% of our food locally sourced or grown here on our homestead. In order to achieve this, we plan to put in a large garden and add an orchard.

We have set our sights on planting cherry, apple, and pear trees and expanding our berry production. This will allow us to make our own jams and jellies, which the kids love, and will be easy to start since they are not too expensive.

We understand that these things take time to get established, so we want to get started as soon as possible.

We are thrilled about our homestead plans and excited to see how we progress toward our self-sufficiency goals.

How to preserve eggs

Now that I have finished making my chicken salad and egg salad, all that is left to do is clean up, and then I will be done with egg preserving for the day. Thank you for cooking with me!

What are your favorite egg recipes? Please let me know in the comments below.