Dry Ridge Farm eggs. Photo by Lyric East
When I moved to Asheville 12 years ago, I was a dedicated vegan. That decision was primarily motivated by a concern for animal welfare and utter confusion around the many claims made on grocery store labels. How could I truly know the animals had a good life?
My first job in the area was as a market assistant at the River Arts District Farmers Market. Week after week, I watched farmers haul in their harvests and lay out beautiful tables of veggies: palettes of this place. Vendors also sold all kinds of pasture-raised meats and dairy, and I was particularly enticed by the farm-fresh eggs customers consistently arrived early to claim.
A turning point moment in my veganism came one Wednesday afternoon at the market—I’ll always remember it. I watched all the perfectly punctual customers excitedly tucking cartons of eggs under their arms and, gosh, was I craving an omelet. I gingerly approached the Gaining Ground Farm booth when no one was in line and asked the farmer if there were any eggs left.
Wendy and Graham Brugh. Photo by West Asheville Creative
She happily pulled out a dozen. Before taking the carton, I mustered the courage to ask her if the chickens were truly raised outside and treated well. She squared her shoulders, looked me straight in the eye and said, “Absolutely. They have a good life.” The sureness and sincerity of that moment, of getting to speak directly to the person responsible for raising my food for the first time in my life, truly changed everything.
I now sell eggs at local farmers markets, alongside the pioneering egg farmers who have come before me. Wendy Brugh, co-owner of Dry Ridge Farm, has been raising eggs since the farm’s very beginnings in 2011. They started with a small flock of 150 heritage breed laying hens as a strategic and value-aligned way to derive income quickly. “We didn’t intend to become egg farmers,” says Brugh. “We went into farming because we love pigs! We wanted to be meat farmers, but meat takes time to grow. Laying hens gave us a product to have on our table at market during the first year.”
But the community quickly fell in love with the eggs as the farm built a loyal following at farmers markets, easily selling out weekly. The demand was clear, and Dry Ridge Farm has since achieved its owners’ dream of being meat farmers (pork and beef)—all while scaling to produce 2,000 dozen fresh eggs each week across their two farm sites in Mars Hill and Weaverville.
All of their birds are pasture-raised, a phrase which you may recognize as increasingly common on grocery store shelves. These labels can be unfairly misleading, with the regulations behind them not matching up to the idyllic pastoral scenes evoked by claims like pasture-raised and free-range. It can be quite confusing shopping in the egg aisles, but that’s where talking directly to your local farmer comes in.
“Our eggs differ from grocery store eggs in several ways,” says Brugh. “They go out to customers within four days of being laid, so they’re far fresher, and all of our birds have more access to pasture than any grocery store egg. Our flock size is far smaller than most grocery pastured eggs, which are typically 10,000 to 50,000 hen flocks.”
Layer Hens. Photo by Lyric East
The smaller flock size and direct relationships with customers are essential aspects for Brugh in maintaining a high-integrity business. Instead of going large-scale and selling into big grocery store chains, they choose to remain at a sustainable production scale that meets their financial needs while enabling them to stay rooted in their values.
“Food security is an issue that’s always on my mind, and I’ve struggled to reconcile how to raise food that is high welfare, benefits the environment and is accessible financially,” Brugh says. “We haven’t fully figured it out, but from day one, we’ve donated the equivalent of 1 percent of our sales to organizations that get our products to people in need of free food.”
This 1% for the People Program donated 1,920 dozen eggs to the community in 2025 alone, primarily through the farm’s longstanding partnerships with Southside Community Farm and Equal Plates Project. That’s a lot of eggs!
As the weather warms and we step fully into the glory of spring, chickens across the region are beginning to lay fervently, making farm-fresh eggs, once again, abundant. With most farmers markets in the region reopening in April and May, now is the perfect time to get out to your closest market and meet a farmer. They will tell you their yolks are orange and rich, their chickens have good lives and I’ll tell you: they’re right.
Purchase Dry Ridge Farm eggs straight from the farmer weekly at the North Asheville Tailgate Market, Asheville City Market and West Asheville Tailgate Market. Their cartons can also be found on retail shelves including the French Broad Food Co-op and Red Fiddle Vittles. Enjoy their eggs in various dishes on menus around town, such as Asheville’s Finest Deli and The Rhu. Lyric East is an artist, writer and owner of Wild East Farm. Find her photos and quarterly publications at WildEastFarm.com. Her farm-grown foods are available weekly at the RAD Farmers Market and the North Asheville Tailgate Market.
