Tonopah Rob's Delicious Eggs

Last Saturday, Nathan Jr and I went and got hair cuts together up at our hair stylist, Natasha Bush on Northern near the 101 in Parkwest.  Little did I know, that there's a local Farmer's Market that is there the 3rd Saturday of each month, from September to April.  Lucky us, it Was the third Saturday. 

While Nathan Jr was getting his hair cut first, I walked around the market and was delighted to find BOTH Crooked Sky Farms and Tonopah Rob's having well stocked, well staffed booths there!  Crooked Sky also goes to the downtown Phoenix market each week, but they've been out of duck eggs this Winter and said they'd resume in March after more ducklings hatch.

Tonopah Rob's booth had several adults and industrious young teenagers working there, selling fresh local produce and eggs.  Before buying 2 dozen truly free range eggs I asked them "how many hens do you have?".  The oldest adult in the large booth said "about 300".  FAR LESS than the 30,000+ that Hickman's industrial factory "farm" has, and FAR MORE Healthy. When I mentioned "Hickman's" to the Tonopah Rob's booth, the adults visibly cringed in revulsion. Yep, my reaction too.  It's impossible to get as many micronutrients in a mass produced, high density caged, hormone & antibiotic fed, anti-organic, industrially gathered chicken egg compared to a truly free range, naturally fed, hormone free, hand gathered, locally sourced chicken egg.  We've been scrambling (for Nathan Jr & I), hard boiling, and "over easy" (for DDF) all week, deliciously.  And the Parkwest location is 1/2 the distance from my home compared to the downtown market, so now I can have a smaller carbon footprint while sourcing my local eggs and vegetables, at least 8 months out of the year.

Nathan Jr also has picked up a penchant for hot sauces, living in Charleston SC as he does.  There were several hot sauce vendors at the market as well, and we are now fully stocked with a variety of hot sauces chez nous.

One note about the Parkwest Farmer's Market, it seemed heavily "Christian Influenced" with multiple church booths proselytizing and preaching their beliefs & selling religious paraphernalia, in between the food and craft vendors.  They were not overly aggressive, and I don't present a "friendly & approachable target" for preachers, especially when I am in a hurry, so they left me alone as I quickly perused the Market landscape.  But I could imagine in a slower, more relaxed stroll through the market, may present multiple chances for me to counter any fundamentalist arguments presented with fact and Biblical references that I picked up during 7 years in parochial school, where I actually paid attention enough to be able to question the dogma that was being taught.  It could make for an interesting (and probably lopsided) Saturday morning religious debate this Spring =)