Eggs needed preserving to last through the long winter months
I was out visiting over the Christmas holidays, and reminiscing about my childhood.
Things have changed so much since I was a girl.
As we were having Christmas cake, I remembered the “water-glass" that my mother used for preserving eggs; some of these were the eggs which my mother used in her Christmas cake recipe.
In winter months, the chickens would slow down their laying frequency.
Hens that in summer would lay one egg a day, might only lay one to two eggs a week, or sometimes none at all.
That meant eggs gathered in summer needed to be preserved so the family had them in the winter months.
And living on a large farm, with never less than two dozen hens in the chicken house, meant we had a lot of eggs.
Water-glass (sodium silicate) was sold locally at Kelowna Growers Exchange.
This store was run by fruit growers and it was where my mother did most of her shopping for the farm.
She would mix one cup of liquid water-glass for each 12 cups of boiled, cooled water.
This mixture – a jelly-like substance – would be placed in a ten gallon crock.
When the hens were laying frequently, my mother would gather the eggs and place them carefully into the waterglass crock, ensuring that the eggs were at least two inches below the top of the mixture.
This crock was stored in a cool place in the root cellar.
Eggs could be kept for months in this solution.
Then, over the holidays, when festive recipes came out, my mother would go to the water-glass crock to gather eggs.
The eggs would be washed thoroughly and then used in baking.
We never ate these eggs fresh. I often think how blessed we are to have a refrigerator and freshly-laid eggs.
What a simple pleasure that we now take for granted.
This article is part of a series submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society. Additional information would be welcome at PO Box 22105, Capri PO, Kelowna,V1Y 9N9.