Like many modern folks, I'm accustomed to seeing perfectly matched eggs. Even the organic eggs that I buy at the supermarket are uniform in size within the box, regardless of slight variations in shell tone. Recently, I decided to switch to shopping at the farmer's market, where I was surprised one day when I passed a booth selling eggs whose size varied among the dozen. I suppose that I had previously assumed that all hens of a certain type always laid identically sized eggs -- i.e., one sort would always lay large, another would always lay extra large, etc. But really, I hadn't thought about it too much. I've never seen a real hen laying real eggs.

I had no idea that hens might lay eggs of varying size. I then leapt to a conclusion that, perhaps, "organic" hens in the "natural" state must lay eggs of wildly varying size, like that ones I saw at the Union Square Greenmarket, in the same way the humans have babies of varying weights. Why were the supermarket eggs all the same size? Does this have something to do with agribusiness? What have we done to our fair chickens?

I shared these thoughts with my father over dinner one night not long afterwards. As I spoke, I saw the fear that he had raised an idiot flash behind his eyes.

"No, Rena," he said gently, "they sort the eggs."

Oh. When I ran this story past other people, including some of the farmers at the greenmarket, they all expressed amusement that I had not known that supermarket eggs achieve their uniformity through presorting. I must have looked like an idiot asking apparently obvious-to-everyone-but-me questions like, "Do different hens within a group lay different sized eggs?"

But seriously, how was I to know? I grew up in the suburbs, live in the city, and have never seen an egg in the nest. Aside from childhood trips to historical reconstructions like Colonial Williamsburg, I've never seen people interacting with live poultry.

I'm just one more urban girl with an imperfect idea of where her food comes from. And maybe, not knowing much about it made a fool out of me. But I'm nothing if not eager to learn. So I took the opportunity to poke around at the farmers' market and educate myself on the various kinds of eggs you might see shopping outside of a supermarket:

1. Chicken eggs are the old familiars. The ones you see in the photographs were purchased at a greenmarket and have bright marigold-yellow yolks.
2. Pullet eggs are smaller, laid by younger hens. They are a fun choice if you're looking for a way to control portion size.
3. Duck eggs are larger than chicken eggs, more oblong in shape, and their shells have a matte, parchment-like tone to them. They have a bright yolk with a more orangey color than you'd see in a chicken egg, and taste oddly egg-ier than chicken eggs. Bakers like to use them because they loft up higher in cakes.
4. The cute kid siblings of the egg world, quail eggs are considered a delicacy, although you might find them too pretty to eat. The insides of the shells are pale blue, and the outsides are speckled. Some confectioner's shops sell chocolate imitations, but there's really no risk of confusion.

Please rest assumed that every delicious egg in the photos was eaten. Yes, I had fun playing with my breakfast food all week.