Truth in advertising: These eggs, from Bar Five Farm in Arlington, Minn., are as farm-fresh as they come.

Short of putting up a chicken shack in the backyard, there’s no fresher source for eggs than the farmers market. This fact is not lost on Christine Wroblewski of Woodbury, who was handing over an empty egg carton and picking up her weekly order at the Bar Five stand at the St. Paul Farmers Market on Saturday morning.

It’s a year-round weekly ritual, one shared by many savvy Twin Cities consumers. The Wemeier farm, a sixth-generation family operation near Arlington, Minn., is one of the few farms in the state that processes its poultry on site. There’s an on-farm smoker, too, which turns out a smoked chicken that has quickly become a favorite in the Wroblewski household. “We call it chicken bacon,” Wroblewski said with a laugh.

And then there are the eggs. “They’re so incredibly fresh,” she said. “They taste great, and the yolks are perfect.” Then she pointed to her 2-year-old son, fidgeting away in a stroller. “When we buy here we feel like we’re eating something better,” Wroblewski said. “We want to feed him good food.” (Another endorsement, if that kind of thing is needed: Golden’s Deli, the market’s open-air commissary, only uses Bar Five eggs in its popular fried egg sandwiches).

Farmer John Wemeier and his assistants - Liz and Jacob, also known as two of his four children - were hustling, working fast to keep up with the customers crowding around their stand. Nine-year-old Jacob took a moment to answer a few questions about the farm’s 500 laying hens.

“We take such good care of our chickens,” he said, flexing what appears to be a bright future in sales. “They eat all kinds of good things, grass and bugs and weeds. Except for the cow pen, we let them run all over the farm.” That’s what poultry bigshots mean when they use the phrase free range. “Sometimes it’s a little more free range than I like,” added John with a laugh. “That’s when I get the kids on their bikes.”

Wemeier and his wife Laura also raise beef cattle and sheep as well as geese, turkeys and ducks - all raised without antibiotics or hormones, and without using animal bi-products for feed - and they sell a wide-variety of value-added products, including stocks and sausages.

Within five minutes, John had interacted with a half-dozen satisfied customers. Most of them, like Wroblewski, came to the Bar Five stand pulling empty egg cartons out of their shopping bags. I’m willing to bet that Jacob gets his sales instincts from his outgoing father, who, despite enjoying what appears to be a fiercely devoted clientele, isn’t shy about luring in new customers. “Four dollars for eggs,” John said to the passing crowd, the tiniest hint of carnival barker in his voice. “They’re nice and big, and they were picked last night.”

Now that’s fresh.

John Wemeier of Bar Five farm at the St. Paul Farmers Market.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 6:55 am and is filed under Farmers and foragers, Farmers markets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.