Edible Sacramento Summer 2022

Clockwise: Junior ostriches at California Ostrich Valley are curious about visitors; Nataliya and Ivan Toderica, founders and owners of California Ostrich Valley; From left, Nicholas, Nikita, and Maxim Tod erica feed fresh grass to an ostrich chick; Three-and-a-half-year-old Nikita holds an ostrich egg; Five-day-old ostrich chicks, the first to hatch of the 2022 season. Photos by Debbie Cunningham

Ostrich eggs are cream colored and surprisingly big — the largest of any liv ing bird — at up to six inches in length and about five inches in diameter and can be bu ed to a pure white color. Crafters seek ostrich eggs for their shells, which are as thick as porcelain teacups. To extract the yolk andwhite while pre serving the shell, Todericadrills into the egg and sucks out the contentswith a straw. “That works for scrambled eggs,” he says, since the strawmethod breaks up the yolk, “not sunny-side up. To fry or poach the egg, you need to crack it.” The equivalent of two dozen chick en eggs, one ostrich egg can easily feed a crowd. Richer in magnesium and iron than chicken eggs, a typical three-pound (1,400-gram) ostrich egg contains about 2,000 calories, 1,736 percent of the adult daily allowance of cholesterol, 100 grams of fat, and 235 grams of protein — more than a 34-ounce beef steak. “One egg makes a big meal,” Toder ica says. California Ostrich Valley Find on Instagram@Ostrich.2018 GullyRumpus Farm • Gullyrumpus.com Kru • Krurestaurant.com

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