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Once upon a time, the family farm started getting requests for a certain type of bird.
Ducks.
The off white poofy birds that waddle around, give little quacks with every step, and freak out whenever anything gets near them. They're about as hilarious as they sound.
Either way, we got some ducks and raised them with the same high standards as our other animals. No drugs at all, constantly moved to fresh pasture, free range to roam the field and yard, and as cleanly processed as we can get away with. We don't give the store we supply to any meat as we keep the ducks on special order. As in, you order one, we take one and kill it. It got awkward after the initial slaughter as we then use a hot water scalder to help pluck the feathers. Less than efficient because... you ever try to get a duck wet?
There's one part to these ducks that we do supply to the store, and that's the eggs. However, a problem was that we weren't quite a hundred percent sure if it was legal to supply duck eggs to the store. We asked around a bit, but no one knew for certain. Apparently, it depends on the laws within the individual states. We ended up emailing the local health inspector looking for answers. The health inspector responded as such:
"Under no circumstances are duck eggs legal to be sold for human consumption or used as an ingredient in any food meant for human consumption under articles 2-B, 4-Y, 5-G, and 7-L of the state egg code."
Not the exact message with exact listed articles, but you get the idea.
But not only did this guy send us this email, but he also sent his reply with our original email to several different people on the state egg board.
...Who we then contacted. They're base of operations, let's call it, is actually within town and we know a couple of them from our questions with regular chicken eggs. They let us see the code for ourselves and look over the exact articles the local inspector had mentioned.
As it turns out, absolutely none of the articles the guy listed had anything to do with what we were talking about. In fact, the health code in our state lists several different kinds off eggs that are legal for sale with duck eggs included in them.
So we sent off, not only a reply, but a REPLY ALL to the health inspector and all he felt the need to share with, listing and shooting down each and every article he listed, posting our own with proof listed in the code itself of how what we were asking was legal. Then we said until they can show where in the code it says that selling duck eggs is against the law, we shall continue to sell them.
Haven't heard from them since. We're still ready to defend our position if need be. We've given all of our information to the store we supply to as well so they can be ready, too.
Sometimes people are a bit nervous about our duck eggs and warn us about how it's illegal to sell them. Whenever they say this, we just smile and respond:
"Show me the code."
Ducks.
The off white poofy birds that waddle around, give little quacks with every step, and freak out whenever anything gets near them. They're about as hilarious as they sound.
Either way, we got some ducks and raised them with the same high standards as our other animals. No drugs at all, constantly moved to fresh pasture, free range to roam the field and yard, and as cleanly processed as we can get away with. We don't give the store we supply to any meat as we keep the ducks on special order. As in, you order one, we take one and kill it. It got awkward after the initial slaughter as we then use a hot water scalder to help pluck the feathers. Less than efficient because... you ever try to get a duck wet?
There's one part to these ducks that we do supply to the store, and that's the eggs. However, a problem was that we weren't quite a hundred percent sure if it was legal to supply duck eggs to the store. We asked around a bit, but no one knew for certain. Apparently, it depends on the laws within the individual states. We ended up emailing the local health inspector looking for answers. The health inspector responded as such:
"Under no circumstances are duck eggs legal to be sold for human consumption or used as an ingredient in any food meant for human consumption under articles 2-B, 4-Y, 5-G, and 7-L of the state egg code."
Not the exact message with exact listed articles, but you get the idea.
But not only did this guy send us this email, but he also sent his reply with our original email to several different people on the state egg board.
...Who we then contacted. They're base of operations, let's call it, is actually within town and we know a couple of them from our questions with regular chicken eggs. They let us see the code for ourselves and look over the exact articles the local inspector had mentioned.
As it turns out, absolutely none of the articles the guy listed had anything to do with what we were talking about. In fact, the health code in our state lists several different kinds off eggs that are legal for sale with duck eggs included in them.
So we sent off, not only a reply, but a REPLY ALL to the health inspector and all he felt the need to share with, listing and shooting down each and every article he listed, posting our own with proof listed in the code itself of how what we were asking was legal. Then we said until they can show where in the code it says that selling duck eggs is against the law, we shall continue to sell them.
Haven't heard from them since. We're still ready to defend our position if need be. We've given all of our information to the store we supply to as well so they can be ready, too.
Sometimes people are a bit nervous about our duck eggs and warn us about how it's illegal to sell them. Whenever they say this, we just smile and respond:
"Show me the code."
Why would it be illegal to sell duck eggs? (I assume the ducks you're using aren't an endangered species.)
I haven't yet found a supplier out here (NH), but back in my hometown in BC I would get duck eggs every week in season from our local farm co-op.
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