Shell Shock
Not all eggs are created equal. Some are bite-sized (and very cute); some are mammoth (and could feed a whole family). Big or small, both take some practice to open. Raising quail and ostriches can be a lot more interesting than farming chickens, and so are the eggs these birds produce.
“Every day is like an Easter egg hunt,” says quail breeder Linda Easton, owner of GullyRumpus Farm in North Highlands, as she shows off a handful of light blue eggs. “Unlike chickens, quail don’t need a nesting box; they just stop and drop.”
Tiny but Tasty
Other species of quail lay cream-colored eggs splotched with brown specks. About the size of a jumbo olive, a quail egg is one-third the length of a chicken egg and contains only 14 calories. Packed with nutrients, quail eggs have about twice the iron and thiamine of chicken eggs and are rich in selenium, riboflavin, vitamin B12, and choline (which helps the nervous system).
People trying to cut down on cholesterol or egg consumption are attracted to quail eggs as a way to enjoy egg flavor with a lot less actual egg; four to five quail eggs equal one large chicken egg, by volume.
GullyRumpus supplies quail eggs to the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op and several local restaurants, including Kru, in Sacramento, and There & Back Again, Sacramento’s new Lord of the Rings-themed restaurant, which features boiled quail eggs as part of its Shire charcuterie board.
The best way to enjoy these little treasures is in dishes that show off their precious size — for example, fried or poached quail eggs on itty-bitty avocado toast or a garnish of pickled quail eggs.
Kru chef and owner Billy Ngo has been a quail egg fan since he opened his restaurant 17 years ago.
“They’re sushi sized! They’re fun! They fit perfectly with what [Kru is] doing. They’re a bite, and bites make a meal. They’re the perfect size for that application,” Ngo says, referring to his restaurant’s menu of sushi and small plates.
Ngo likes the taste of quail eggs, too.
“Quail eggs definitely are lighter; they don’t taste as rich as a chicken egg. The yolk adds a little creaminess,” he says.
At Kru, Ngo uses those deep-yellow yolks over wagyu beef or drops them into shot glasses for quail-egg-and-oyster shooters (see Ngo’s recipe). He slow-poaches the eggs in their own tiny shells or breaks open a dozen into a small pan to fry sunny-side up.
“You have 12 little yolks like dots in the pan,” he says. “It looks cool.”
The hardest part? Getting the yolk out of the shell. Quail eggs have a tough, rubbery membrane that keeps the shell from breaking. That makes hard-boiled quail eggs easiest to peel.
For her regular customers, Easton provides a solution for opening raw quail eggs: a cigar cutter. Just slip it over the larger end of the one-inch-wide egg and snip off the shell with one quick snap.
Quail vs. Chicken
In 2020, Easton started GullyRumpus Farm as a chicken business, but she soon switched to quail.
“They’re so much easier [than chickens], and so much fun,” she says. “They look like potatoes on legs.”
Quail have gained popularity as an alternative to backyard chickens; they make a lot less noise, Easton says. “With quail hens, you barely know they’re there. They eat less, too.”
Small and compact, quail take up less space than chickens and can be a lot more productive. A quail hen can produce 300 to 330 eggs per year and starts laying eggs at just six weeks old. Conversely, most chicken breeds don’t start laying until six or eight months.
Besides being tiny, quail are short lived.
Easton’s Japanese quail live only about two and a half years, while chickens often live eight years or more. Quail hens lay eggs almost their entire lives while chicken hens have limited fertility.
Easton’s Japanese quail are actually close relatives to chickens. (California’s native valley quail, the state’s official bird, is a pheasant cousin.) For families or teachers who want to incubate their own quail eggs, Easton offers a Hatching at Home program.
“Their blue eggs are so gorgeous,” she says.
Big Birds, Huge Eggs
While growing up in Moldova, a tiny Eastern European nation, Ivan Toderica, owner of California Ostrich Valley in Elk Grove, dreamed of raising ostriches. In the 1990s, ostrich farming was touted as a way to get rich. Ostrich mania attracted investors as well as farmers.
“A single fertilized egg cost $5,000,” Toderica recalls. “But nobody was really making money.”
After immigrating to the United States, Toderica still kept thinking about ostrich ranching.
“It felt like something interesting and out of the ordinary. I did a lot of research. Eventually, I found out there’s a whole science to raising these birds,” he says.
The world’s largest bird, ostriches have a lot to offer. Pound for pound, they take less feed than cattle and less space, but while a cow has only one calf per year, an ostrich hen can lay up to 80 eggs annually … for two decades or more.
“I know people with 25-year-old [ostrich] hens who are still producing eggs,” Toderica says, adding that the birds can live more than 50 years.
Almost every part of the bird has commercial value, from the eggs (both for their contents and shell) to the feathers (for decoration as well as anti-static dusters), the meat (red meat, like beef, but with less cholesterol), and the skin (for leather goods).
Since ostriches don’t fly, groups of them are herds, not flocks. But just like chickens and quail, female ostriches are hens, and the males are called roosters.
In some ways, ostrich ranching is more like raising cattle than chickens. Mature ostriches are big animals, weighing 350 to 400 pounds; adults grow up to nine feet tall. And they run — up to 40 miles per hour.
“They’re scary!” Toderica says.
In 2018, Toderica started with 15 chicks. He now has about 100 ostriches. At his farm in south Sacramento County, Toderica raises his birds primarily for breeding, not eating. He sells unfertilized eggs sold to the public by appointment, for $45 apiece.
Ostrich eggs are cream colored and surprisingly big — the largest of any living bird — at up to six inches in length and about five inches in diameter and can be buffed to a pure white color. Crafters seek ostrich eggs for their shells, which are as thick as porcelain teacups.
To extract the yolk and white while preserving the shell, Toderica drills into the egg and sucks out the contents with a straw.
“That works for scrambled eggs,” he says, since the straw method breaks up the yolk, “not sunny-side up. To fry or poach the egg, you need to crack it.”
The equivalent of two dozen chicken eggs, one ostrich egg can easily feed a crowd. Richer in magnesium and iron than chicken eggs, a typical three-pound (1,400-gram) ostrich egg contains about 2,000 calories, 1,736 percent of the adult daily allowance of cholesterol, 100 grams of fat, and 235 grams of protein — more than a 34-ounce beef steak.
“One egg makes a big meal,” Toderica says.
California Ostrich Valley
Find on Instagram @Ostrich.2018
GullyRumpus Farm
Gullyrumpus.com
