The other night, we were heading out to my aunt and uncle’s cottage for dinner, and I realized that all the goodies I was taking them sure looked like I’d turned into a bonafide country gal now – a fresh bouquet from Cloverhill Flowers, a pie plate full of homemade chocolate chip cookies and a half dozen eggs collected that morning from our backyard coop.
Having your own eggs is a real joy and I love sharing that experience with loved ones too. As soon as our first hens started laying in the fall of 2015, I created these tags for packaging them up. The look on someone’s face when you hand them a little carton of eggs that were collected that morning – you’d think you were giving them golden eggs. The tags were so easy to make and I keep a stack of them in our kitchen drawer, along with a ball of twine for wrapping the cartons and some small stickers to write the date they were collected on.
On the front of the tags, I used an old chicken image that always makes me think of our former rooster, Henry. He recently left our coop to go to a breeding program, but I have to admit I miss his familiar cock-a-doodle-doo when I’d pull in the driveway.
On the back of the tag, I like to give the recipient simple instructions on how to use the fresh eggs. I keep our eggs for one month in the fridge (although they never last that long), and I also wash them with warm soapy water right before I use them. If you wash them ahead of time, they’ll lose their natural bloom that acts as a protective barrier from bacteria.
The template will create nine small tags that can be hole punched and then attached to your carton with twine. I’ve made the template in Microsoft Word, so it is super easy for you to swap out “Cloverhill Farmhouse” for whatever you’d like to say. I prefer to print on a heavier linen paper or cardstock, to give them a more professional look. The lines are a faint grey, making it easy to cut them down to size. You’ll need to print the document double sided for the instructions to be on the back.
Having eggs from our very own backyard chickens is such a treat and I love being able to share it with others. For all you fellow crazy chicken owners out there, I hope this inspires you to fill up some cartons with eggs and pass them out to family and friends.
