Eggs are perhaps the most versatile food on the planet. They’re eaten on their own —boiled, fried, scrambled or poached, and they’re an integral ingredient in just about every cake or cookie. Breakfast almost wouldn’t be possible without eggs. Breakfast casseroles, quiches, omelets and even French toast revolve around the egg. 

Eggs are also nature’s multivitamin, providing 13 vitamins and minerals, unsaturated fats, antioxidants and about 12 percent of an average person’s daily protein requirement per egg. 

Cullman County egg farmers Lee and Sara Haynes’ kitchen is always well-stocked with eggs —when Lee remembers to bring them home.

“It’s so funny; our farm produces 120,000 dozen eggs per week, and Lee is around eggs all day, every day, but he forgets to bring them home for me all the time,” Sara said. “So I’ll be baking something late in the evening, and he’ll have to run down to the plant and grab some eggs for me.”

Eggs are a key ingredient in most recipes Sara prepares for her family of six. She homeschools the couple’s four children and incorporates cooking into as many lessons as she can. The kids take turns each night being the “kitchen helper.” 

Sara is a prolific cook and credits her grandmothers and mother-in-law for teaching her how to cook traditional Southern fare.

Originally from Sarasota, Florida, Sara enjoys food from all over the world but can’t find the same variety at restaurants in Cullman that she was accustomed to in Florida. Her love for Southern cuisine, ethnic food and creating fun culinary memories with her children results in lots of experimentation and recipe development. She said having an endless supply of eggs is a nice perk of farm life, too.

“I try to find uses for eggs all the time because the kids and I really like them,” Sara said. “We go through a lot of eggs trying out all these recipes. I can’t imagine having to buy them all at the store. I love living on the farm.”