AN Inwardleigh couple are celebrating after scooping the regional title for the best eggs in the west for the third time in succession.
Tim and Janet White have 10,000 free-range laying hens at Brook Farm — and such is the quality of their produce, they have now been allowed to keep their special cockerel trophy after winning top honours yet again at the Wessex Poultry Conference recently.
Senior egg inspectors judged the eggs in the NFU-run competition, marking them for their appearance, colour and eveness of shape.
Tim said: 'They also candle them to check for cracks — in the old days they would have been held in front of a candle — nowadays they put them in front of a bright light.
'Then they'll crack a few and look at them in terms of consistency, colour of yolk etc.'
The hens at Brook Farm are Lohmann Traditionals — a bird which has been specifically bred for the free range life. And they certainly seem to enjoy it, producing around 600 dozen eggs a day!
Tim said: 'They are a bit hardier than caged varieties. When we open them up in the morning, even if it's chucking it down with rain, a good 75% of them will fly straight out and charge around looking for the nicest slugs and worms.'
Tim said eggs produced at Brook Farm have a very yellow yolk, mainly due to their varied diet.
He supplies several local outlets with eggs, including Café Noir in Okehampton and the snack bar at Sourton Cross. They are also distributed to supermarkets via Dean's foods and are a familiar sight at
Okehampton's Farmers' Market.
'In fact, when we take them to the market, we only ever take down eggs which have been laid the day before, whereas with supermarket eggs, it could be anything up to a week before they hit the shelves,' said Tim.
Next time he goes to the market, his trophy will be given pride of place on the stall.
'We were always worried it would break, so we didn't take it before,' said Tim.
The next Okehampton Farmers' Market takes place the Saturday before Christmas, December 20.