If there is one must have traditional farmers market item, it’s probably eggs. Our rural roots are full of stories of the egg man or egg woman and many of our breakfast stories revolve around sunny side up, soft scrambled or omelets or toad-in-a-hole.
At tables 19, 32, and 33 on aisles A and B, Patsy and Lawrence Ward have pleased customers with eggs, pork and conversation since 2002. They came to the Market when they recognized the opportunity to expand their egg sales then added pork to their products.
What we see in the Market is the tip of a much bigger farming operation carried out by Lawrence and his brothers. Starting with a smaller family farm, they’ve grown to over 500 acres near McLeansville.
There, they raise the hogs that become chops, sausage, tenderloin, ribs and bacon. On that same acreage, 1500 chickens lay the eggs that come into then leave the Market each Saturday morning. Those chickens also supply local bakeries and retail customers at the farm plus some of the Market’s bakers.
The Ward’s chicken houses have been a part of Ward family farms for four generations and now include access to predator protected outdoor areas. Those happy chickens feast on livestock grains from local farms plus the unlucky insects that blunder into their reach.
Finally, the brothers supply squash to a large supermarket chain for their Southeast stores. It’s a big operation.
They came by the name “Ward’s Happy Chickens” naturally. In their words, “We’re Lawrence and Patsy Ward, and we specialize in wholesome eggs from free-range chickens and naturally raised pigs on our family-owned farm in McLeansville, North Carolina. We like to say our pesticide-free, hormone-free eggs are laid by the happiest chickens in the Carolinas.”
Come for the pork, come for the conversation but don’t forget the “Incredible Edible Eggs.”
“When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait.”
-Pablo Picasso
“Oh, God above, if heaven has a taste it must be an egg with butter and salt, and after the egg is there anything in the world lovelier than fresh warm bread and a mug of sweet golden tea?”
-Frank McCourt, ‘Angela’s Ashes’ (1996)
