Quail eggs, featuring large orange yolks, are highly dense in nutrition. (Photo by Mike Driscoll)
Farmers’ markets are wonderful sources for fresh, local edibles, but also, surprising finds not on everyday supermarket shelves.
Many vendors delight in offering more than the expected fare, even when it comes to staples such as eggs.
Two such innovative area smaller producers are Drew Kinohi from Kinohi Poultry LLC in Greensboro, and the Cambridge area’s Ashley Blake, who together with cousin Amy Harman, created Honeydew Homestead.
Both were inspired to begin their respective small farm ventures about 10 years ago as a way to produce the healthiest food for their own families; both now share their lovingly produced bounty via farmers markets and online sales.
Kinohi, who hails from a native Hawaiian family, is especially proud to produce an array of unique pasture and farm raised fowl varieties, in what he’s termed the spirit of “Aloha (Alo– presence, Ha–breath, or breath of life) from our Ohana (family), to yours.”
While meat is his main focus, he’s also delighted to be able to offer eggs, primarily from chickens, but also duck, quail, and, at times, even turkey.
Working from his 10-acre Caroline County farm, Kinohi has been selling his poultry products on a part-time basis until transitioning to full-time this year.
Weekly, he makes the rounds at four farmers markets, Denton (Wednesday afternoon 4:30-6), Cambridge (Thursday afternoon 3-6), Easton (Saturday 8 a.m.-1 p.m.), and Anne Arundel County (9 a.m. – noon).
Currently, he raises about 200-250 laying chickens, 25-30 ducks, 150-200 quail, 100 to 300 turkeys, and 6 rabbits.
Intrigued after tasting a duck egg, Kinohi decided to offer his customers a chance to sample and savor them.
Larger than chicken eggs, they’re also “more creamy and robust” tasting, with much bigger, darker colored yolks,” he added.
Along with the unexpected flavor, he discovered some unexpected adventure in the process.
Unlike chickens, who neatly lay their eggs regularly, in a designated coop spot, with his Peking and Cayuga ducks, “it’s like Easter morning every morning,” Kinohi added with a smile, relating that they instead drop eggs wherever it suits them as they roam outdoors.
Still, they supply 200-250 eggs per year, he noted.
Originally drawn to quail through the enticing the flavor of their meat, Kinohi found that the tiny birds were able to produce tasty petite speckled egg specimens much more quickly than chickens or ducks; the small birds mature in only about eight weeks, with help from an incubator.
While he always has several half dozen packs of duck and quail eggs on hand as he makes his farmers market rounds, Kinohi’s found that they’re quickly snapped up by the numerous “foodies” frequenting the Anne Arundel market.
Blake and Harman, the duo behind Honeydew Homestead, are both originally from Dorchester County’s distinctive southern area of Hoopers Island.
Harman, who said she never met a houseplant she didn’t want to adopt, also applies her incredibly green thumb to growing flowers and unique veggies, among them, purple flecked Dragon Tongue beans.
Blake, who always loved the farming lifestyle, managed to put down roots in Cambridge, where she, too, was able to follow her dream, first growing veggies.
Wanting a fresher source of eggs than store bought, Blake overcame her initial fears that chickens might be too challenging to raise, and gave it a try.
To her relief, she found them to be a delight, plus the eggs were deliciously fresh and natural, unlike the majority mass produced for grocery stores, which are washed, removing the protective “bloom,” she noted.
“I started with just six, at first,” Blake recalled, “before ‘chicken math’ took over, and before I knew it, there were 50,” she chuckled.
Currently, she’s raising a variety of 65 free range chickens, which lay eggs in a veritable rainbow of colors, she noted, plus six ducks (Peking, Cayuga, Khaki), and 25 quail.
Blake often now enjoys using duck eggs in baked goods she also sells, like sweet bread with lemon or orange glaze.
Harmon’s brother, Chef Aaron Wade Powley, meanwhile, developed a flavorful recipe for pickled quail eggs, which he incorporates in menus.
Like Kinohi, the exquisite flavor of fresh quail meat led them to discover the easy to raise bird’s eggs.
Although their tiny size leaves some of Blake’s customers wondering if they provide enough actual food to make them worthwhile, the cousins agree that they make the perfect healthy snack or appetizer.
But beyond tasting good, both duck and quail eggs pack beneficial nutrition and health value, according to Blake, who glowingly sings their praises.
Duck eggs contain elements which restore muscles, which makes them good for stroke victims, she noted.
And quail eggs, featuring surprisingly large orange yolks, are highly nutrition dense.
Midway through their first year as Cambridge Farmers Market vendors, the cousins are already eyeing plans to grow and expand by getting certified to produce meat birds and add additional fowl varieties, including guinea and peacock to their menagerie.
