  I grew up in the country. We had cows, sheep, pigs, horses, and many dogs and cats. But we never had chickens. I've always heard people say once you get used to fresh eggs, you'll never be able to live without them.
Now I can tell you that's true. No, we did not join the masses of city-dwelling yuppies who raise chickens in the backyard. For about a year now, I've been going to the Central City Co-op, a fuit and vegetable co-op that provides mostly locally grown, organic food. In thiis past year, the co-op's really bloomed. It's gone from an empty lot in upper Kirby where people convene on Wednesdays only, to a rented house with Wednesday pick-up days augmented by occasional Saturday co-op community socials, and now it's in a warehouse rented from an inner-city church and is open Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Instead of only getting a pre-packed box of a wide variety of fruits and veggies, now you can pick out your own items, too. This part is especially fun for Aidan, who loves counting out apples or melons and carrying them to our recycled box. Aside from fresh grown stuffs, these days there is also local honey, handmade soaps, venegars, and kefir, cheeses (mostly goat), nuts, and freshly laid eggs.
It's on this latter item that I've developed a particularly strong dependency. The switch was a big one for me, because for so long now I've depended on Whole Foods' algae-fed hen eggs, as they were an extra source of omega-3 fatty acids in our family's diet. Especially during the pregnancies and stilll now nursing, I wanted to be sure to promote the brain myelination with the good fats. But we've gotten to where we ea wild smoked salmon for breakfast or snacks mor mornings of the week than not, so I think we can afford the change.
That's probably just rationalization on my part. I'll tell myself anything to get to keep eating these eggs! It's not like they're bad. They're from grain-fed, cage-free organic chickens that just happen to live near-by. 
