Eggshells

 

Cooking Eggshells & veggie enchiladas

To Cook or Not To Cook that is the question?
I cook. I usually just let the eggshells pile up in a bag in the frig until I remember to cook them. And I only cook them when already ready cooking something as not to waste resources (gas/electricity). Oh, I choose to cook them to kill any bacteria, while others obviously do not. I prefer to err on the side of caution. Plus I am not always giving them to the chickens. Wait. Am I getting ahead of myself?

Eggshells have many purposes aside from containing a delicious egg. So once you crack that egg open consider any of the following:

• Put it in your city's green bin. Anything that can decompose should go there instead of the landfill.
• Feed it to local birds as the calcium in the shells helps to harden their eggshells and with every species having a less nutritional diet due to all the chemicals and whatnot being used they can use the help. 
• If you have chickens feed it to your chickens. Same reason as above and they do LOVE it. My chickens aren't too fond of oyster shells but will eat them if necessary. That is what most commercial feeds have in them and/or stores sell. When I give them eggshells they do a happy dance.
• Feed them to your worms. It is said that the egg shells slowly release calcium, acts as a buffer to prevent acidic conditions from developing, provides grit to help the worms breakdown their food, smaller the piece easier to decompose or be eaten, and calcium boosts worm reproduction. Some think that not rinsing out the yoke is ok for this use as well because the yoke adds nitrogen and probably other good stuff. I won't say I have never done this but I def cook my shells now.
• Add them to your garden for the the calcium
• Add them to your garden around your plants to protect from snails and slugs.
• And of course, you can add them to your own compost bin.

Those are the ways I use eggshells. There are several other uses but these work for me. If you have any others, please share. Or if you have questions...ask away.
I almost forgot to show my process. First I put them in the oven to cook. (see picture above)

I placed a plastic bag over them to prevent flying eggshells while i rolled a mason jar over them to break them in small pieces. This was midway through. I remembered to take a picture.

Almost done. They can be done at this point but I try to get them a little smaller.

This is it. From here I decide where to put them: garden, worms, chicken, or compost bin.

This takes a little bit of effort BUT i feel it is worth it.