The freshest eggs ever from your own backyard

You, too, can keep chickens in your backyard and gather fresh eggs. It's not far-fetched. Here and around the country, more people are doing it.

Chickens that scratch and peck and eat earthworms will produce egg yolks as orange as the sun, and they will taste better than any egg you ever bought at the supermarket. Such eggs will not spread limply all over the pan but will have a stand-up, perky look.

Let's let Lisa Mitten and Nick Martielli tell it. They live in Huntington, where keeping as many as eight chickens in the backyard was officially sanctioned by the town board in February.

"The yolks are vibrant orange," said Martielli, a vocalist and saxophonist who leads a band called Spider Nick & the Maddogs. Truly free-range eggs are also high in omega 3, he said.

Mitten, who consults on sustainable agriculture and other food policies, said that when they got the baby chicks, "We would hold them, cup them in our hands from the first day."

Mitten and Martielli have two each of Araucanas (which lay pastel eggs), Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Black Australorps. Their birds are friendly and tame, and all of them have names.

"Linda is the most curious," Mitten said. The hen's attitude, she said, is, "What's going on, and how can I be involved?"

Charlie Butler and his wife, Carol Reitz-Butler, also have been keeping chickens in a well-built coop in their spacious backyard in East Patchogue. Butler, a carpenter who grew up in rural Salemburg, N.C., admits they aren't saving money on eggs. But they look forward to "frying them up on Sunday," said his wife, an artist and designer.

The Butlers' Rhode Island Reds, however, do not have names. "They're chickens," Butler said.

Both couples take joy in giving eggs away. "People always comment on the yolks," Reitz-Butler said.

For more information about urban and suburban hens, go to urbanchickens.net.

ITALIAN-STYLE CHEESE PIE

Nick Martielli's mother JoAnn called her open-faced pie calzone, though some might call it pizza rustica. The idea of a rye crust is Martielli's.

For crust:

11/4 cups rye flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup ice water, or as needed

For filling:

11/2 pounds (24 ounces) ricotta cheese

3 eggs (sometimes 4)

4 ounces mozzarella, minced

3 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-

Reggiano

1 small onion, peeled and minced

1/4 pound lean ham, minced, optional (see note)

Dash of pepper

Granulated fructose or sugar, for

sprinkling

1. Place flour and salt in a bowl and fluff together with a fork. Using a pastry blender or clean fingers, cut in butter. Slowly add ice water until dough can be pushed together into a ball. Flatten into a disk, wrap securely in wax paper or place in tightly covered glass container and place in freezer for about 30 minutes.

2. When ready to proceed, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured wax paper; transfer it to a deep, 9-inch pie plate.

3. In a bowl, whisk together ricotta and eggs until light and fluffy. Fold in mozzarella and grated cheeses, onion, ham (if using) and pepper. Pour mixture into pie shell and lightly sprinkle granulated fructose or sugar on top. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a knife comes out clean. (If crust edges start to brown too fast, cover with strips of foil.) Makes 6 servings.

Note: If you omit the ham, you may want to add a little salt. Martielli does not.