Devon Eggs

I met a remarkable gal today. At just 21, she already has her own (extremely successful) business, Devon Eggs. Essentially, she provides farm fresh eggs to businesses. She has between 75- 100 customers. WOW.

This gal is called Lucy and she is so very sweet. I was able to spend an entire day with her whilst in Devon. We started the day bright and early- first thing on the list:

Ducks!

We had to put her ducks out of their hut and collect the eggs. Lucy collected while my clumsy self supervised ;)

Afterwards, it was time to prepare the orders. We headed into her Dad's shed, which he will point out that she has taken over little by little, where there is an egg sorting machine:

This machine sizes all of Lucy's eggs (it is required, by law, that the eggs are sorted like this in the UK). There is a conveyor belt which feeds the eggs on to little holsters. These holsters are weight sensitive. This machine will drop the egg into certain ares based on its weight. Hence, XL, L, M, SM eggs.

The eggs are then packaged by six and labelled. This was my job. While I was nervous to break every single egg I laid my hands on, I ended up doing quite well. I am proud to boast that I didn't break a single egg! I know that all of you that have witnessed my clumsiness are amazed as well :)

So, as I packaged and labelled the eggs, Lucy sorted. I also put them into boxes for ease of delivery.

Today's deliveries were in the Dartmoor area. For any of you who saw the recent film, "War Horse," you would recognize Dartmoor as it is where the movie was filmed!

The moors were s.t.u.n.n.i.n.g. Overcast, yes, but oh so pretty. Where most of Devon would feature hedges, Dartmoor boasts stone walls. And sheep. And ponies. The sheep and ponies of the moor wander aimlessly. You see, there are not held in by fencing but are rather able to graze at their own leisure.

This brings me to my next point: watch out for them when you are driving along the road because they will often wander onto it. :)

Once all of the deliveries were done, Lucy and I picked up some more eggs from her neighbor/supplier and watched some telly with her Mom, Veronica, and her sister, Zoe.

Lucy is fabulous. I really enjoyed my day with her. She is so successful and makes me feel like perhaps I could start my own business? Hmmm, time will tell.

I have a new found love for Come Dine with Me. Perhaps we should do our own version, friends?