Here’s their blurb.. hemp eggs are getting to be quite the thing these days
Have you seen “hemp eggs” on Lancaster County shelves and wondered exactly what that means? So did we.
Here’s what we know – and don’t know – about the item Kreider Farms in Manheim launched in December. The Cage Free Hemp Egg is a line extension of Chiques Creek, the brand that sells hemp iced teas at Giant, Weis and Rutter’s stores.
So, what is a hemp egg?
It’s a brown egg from a cage-free bird with a 20-percent hemp seed meal diet.
What’s the other 80 percent?
While the diet is vegetarian, vice president of sales and marketing Dave Andrews said he didn’t know the specifics of what makes up that diet, including whether it contains common allergens like corn and soy. And a spokesperson said the details can’t be released.
“Due to the competitive environment, Kreider Farms needs to keep the specifics on their proprietary feed for its birds undisclosed,” the spokesperson said.
Why hemp seed meal?
The hemp seed meal in the diet, Kreider Farms says, results in a nutrient-packed egg. When compared to a standard egg, Kreider Farms claims their hemp egg has more than three times more Omega-3, four times more Vitamin D, two times more Vitamin B12 and 20 percent more lutein.
Andrews said Kreider Farms currently has 2,000 cage-free, indoor-only, American Humane Certified birds on its Manheim farm producing the eggs, with plans for expansion.
Where does the hemp seed come from? Is it local?
Kreider Farms declined to share specifics about where the hemp seed fed to the birds was sourced, citing the competitive market and a number of other companies who are trying to replicate the process.
“Kreider Farms’ hemp supply is coming from a variety of sources until they are able to source all hemp material locally,” a spokesperson for the company wrote in an email. “From the start, the goal has always been to use locally grown and processed hemp and ultimately to grow hemp themselves for its own products.”
“Kreider Farms’ goal has always been to source our hemp locally, however processing locally grown crops is the challenge,” Andrews said on a December 2021 episode of Lancaster Farming’s Hemp podcast. “We can grow hemp in Pennsylvania, although there is very little processing available within the state of Pennsylvania. We have sourced some product from Pennsylvania, but most of it is still coming from out of state. We are pushing as hard as we can to source all our hemp from within the state, although we do not know when that will become possible.”
Where can you get hemp eggs?
For now, in Lancaster County, the eggs are only available in Lancaster at Shady Maple Farm Market, 1324 Main St. in East Earl, and The Market at Oregon Dairy, 2900 Oregon Pike in Lititz. They’re available at Giant stores in the Philadelphia suburbs, too.
