Well, the chickens are laying about 1 1/2 doz eggs/day now. I've got a wholesale mkt(a local tavern that'll take all I get) but I was soon to run out of cartons. I put a sign up at the local supermarket.

WILL TRADE---1 doz farm fresh eggs for 1 doz cartons.

Got 120 cartons yesterday and another two doz today, along with a junking job to include 200' of 1" poly pipe and misc other goodies. LIFE IS GOOOOD!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

Answers

Smart!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

john...hey smart thinking! btw, if you are ever out this way, stop by. Besides a nice visit, you could help us get rid of the millions of egg cartons that we have collected!!! People love to get farm fresh eggs, so they collect cartons from *everyone* to give to us. I think I could insulate a new building with these!

Our hens are getting old now (two years) so they don't lay as much. But the eggs are huge!

Congrats! That's usin' your noodle!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

That's beautiful John.......love that kinda stuff........

Some places they'll give you trouble about using 'used' cartons, believe it or not.....

I get lots of em too; I use extras for packing some of my products; work especially good for the drums.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2001

A few years ago I put an ad in the local paper. "Will trade organic tomatoes and produce for canning jars." I was busy for a month cleaning out older ladies garages of all their canning jars. I got hundreds of jars and met some real sweet people. They were just to on in years to mess with a garden anymore. Man, you should've seen all the neat old antiques stashed away in those garages! I traded a pup for 2 thousand pounds of corn one summer, and a pup for 13 large round rolls of hay the same summer. Border Collies are farmers dogs and they always have good things to trade.

Trading is so cool. Good idea John. I have about 200 egg cartons and NO eggs(sold all my hens.) Wish you were closer!

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

John Life is Gooood! and you are so enterprising and thanks for sharing the happiness!

I too like some of the others have found that people are pretty generous with the cartons. I went to the basement one day and video taped the ones down there and said, when one has eggs people bring them egg cartons, then I went to the pantry and video taped the ones in there, and I said and they bring you more egg cartons,then I went to the kitchen and to the smokehouse and video taped the ones in there, and said , and they continue to bring you egg cartons. It's just so funny , people who don't even get eggs will stop and bring me egg cartons, relatives will bring egg cartons, I try to act thankful for the egg cartons when actually I am wondering where I am gonna put more egg cartons. And what if I tell them that I don't need egg cartons, will the totter, teeter the other way and suddenly no body will bring me egg cartons! Oh No! I dare'nt do that! I will just smile and thank them for the egg cartons! I like Sheepish's idea about using them for insulation. Wouldn't that work! Espeally the cardboard ones!

IN regards to what Earth Mama said about them giving you a hard time about using used cartons, does any body recollect the rule on this, I seem to remember that it is illegel to use used cartons but that there is a way around it. Like wasn't it ok if the customer brought cartons to put his eggs in? Anybody got their chicken book handy? Anyhow I don't think anybody much cares, nobody even knows usually.

Cindy in Kentucky! Wow, I loved your post. " Border Collies are farmers dogs, and farmers allways have something good to trade" Love that line! And I can just picture those old ladies and their garages full of canning jars ,as they will be me, or I will be them I mean! And maybe some of the rest of you. Huh?

I already have far more canning jars then I will ever use!{Unless the world falls apart and the whole neighborhood is dependent upon me for canning supplys!}

IN the beginning I scoured yard sales for Jars then I started winning ribbons and coupons at the county fair for canned goods. coupons for free and practically free jars and lids!

Yep, I can see the day when I will be too tired to do all this any more, already I ache and I am finding little ways of getting out of work, like appretincing a neighbor girl who wishes to learn the art of preserving, and letting the whole neighborhood come help me pick berries! And oh dear canning this years tomatoe crop is a thought that I don't dwell on! Why is it that the tomatoes are always ready to can on the hotest day of the year? As the steam rises from the kettles , the water drips from my forehead, my neck, my body, it actually gives me a funny shiver as it slids down my back. Maybe I should look upon it as a yearly purification, a ritual, a cleansing.

Yes I have already pictured the day when I will run an add in the local paper, Free Canning Jars, and some young man or women with visions of fresh produce and boiling kettles in their heads will search out my smoke house where a future of preserving will be awaiting them! It will be kind of exciting in it's own way won't it. Another chapter, a part to play, a handing down of a tradition.

Well chatter box am I! I'd best get with it! Bye Bye Trren

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Tren, the laws about food and such are usually enforced locally, (although local govt people often don't know what theyre talking about regarding state laws) so its different in each area.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

I bet the grocery store really loves you.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

I have had chickens my whole life and it hasn't ever been a real problem getting egg cartons. Usually if you just put the word out, people around here anyway, come up with way more than I need.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

tren, I love it!!!! That is the way it has been for us for many years. We call it "feast or famine". The other day the mail lady pulled in the drive with a stack. She knows my neighbor and heard I needed them. (that would have been from last November when we ran out and were asking everyone to bring their's back) Got to love it!!!

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

I've read the putting the egg cartons into walls is good for sound baffling or sound deadening. I don't know how well they really would insulate, but apparently, they can really cut down on sound transmission. One person was gluing them to the backside of a wall of sheetrock, before the sheetrock on the other side of the studs was put up. Probably could put them between floor joists too.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Yeah, that's what I have heard them used for: sound insulation. My bro is a musician, and I seem to recall all the garage bands back in Seattle in the grunge years talking about it.

I too, put an ad in the paper for free canning jars. I got 1000 in about 2 weeks! I met some great older women, who also gave me bean seeds, a free pressure canner (needed a new gasket is all) and lots of good conversation about canning. Mr. S. wants me to get rid of half of them b/c I am not using them all. However, I guess I collect canning jars (thinking of the other thread on "what do you collect."

The way the garden is growing this year, I may never have to wash a jar this season! Sheesh!

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

I've got my people trained. They not only return the cartons, but add more to the orginals. I donated 25 dozen to the school's pancake breakfast fundraiser. I asked the local bagel shop if I could have his egg cartons. They are not really cartons but single layer sheets that fit one and a half eggs on. Might make it easier to take to the tavern.

Tren, I seem to remember that it is okay to reuse cartons as long as you cross off the company name. I hate styrofoam ones myself.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001

We sell eggs at the farmers market, and usually come home with stacks of extra cartons. We figure that the kind of people who buy at farmers markets are the organic types who hate to see the waste, so are just too happy to find someone who can use the cartons. Hate the styrofoam ones too. Regular glue won't stick our labels to them!

Here's a hint for making an impact at market - people love to get a pretty feather in the egg cartons. We try to pick up the roosters tail feathers when the lose them (or meet with an axe!). Just lay one in the top of each carton.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001