But, if you want to test the egg for freshness before you dye it, a local inventor hopes to help you out.
After testing her own eggs at home for decades, Trish Horst, a product developer with five patents under her belt, created Good Egg-Bad Egg! to offer a more exact definition of freshness. The product isn’t on the market yet, but Walgreens and other retailers have shown interest and Horst expects it to be out well before you start dying next year’s Easter eggs.
Good Egg-Bad Egg!, which has patents pending and is now being manufactured, is a 16-ounce, liquid measuring cup with four lines on the side to indicate the freshness, depending on its buoyancy, ranging from “Bad Egg! Do Not Use!” at the top to “Real Fresh Egg! Enjoy!” at the bottom.
To test an egg, fill the cup with water, drop it in and see where it settles.
On an afternoon this week, Horst sat at a table in her Naples condo with a six-egg carton and a glass Good Egg-Bad Egg! prototype for a demonstration. She only buys half-dozen egg cartons, because she likes her eggs super fresh.
Horst lifted the first egg for inspection — it was smooth and white, without cracks — and dropped it into the tester. The egg sunk to the bottom and laid on its side.
“That’s a really fresh egg,” she said. “See how it’s laying sideways on the bottom.”
The second egg, which sat on the bottom tipping upward, was a “good egg;” the third, which floated completely upright with its tip out of the water, was rotten.
So why create a tester, when an egg that floats is bad and an egg that sinks is good?
“We wanted to know more, so our tester is calibrated,” Horst said. “We didn’t want to know if it was just good or bad, but how old.”
Horst and her husband Bruce, a mechanical engineer who owns a medical screw manufacturing company, tested dozens of eggs fresh from the farm and from the supermarket to calibrate their egg tester.
Good eggs, which sit on the bottom but tip upward, are between 7 and 10 days old, according to the tester. OK eggs, which settle a little higher, are between 21 and 35 days old and are good for baking.
Family egg-testing habits from her mother and grandmother inspired Good Egg-Bad Egg!, Horst said. The product will be available in plastic and glass, which will probably retail for $2.99 and $4.99, respectively.
Horst, who lives six months of the year in Naples and six months in Rockland, Ill., started as a small business owner in Rockland in the 1950s. She turned to inventing in the early 1970s.
The key to inventing is to be observant, calm and thoughtful, Horst said. Wannabe inventors should take clues from young children, she said, because they look at the world without preconceived ideas about how things should or shouldn’t be done.
Years ago, Horst came up with an idea for simple plastic salad tongs without long handles. Extra Hands, which have a little knob on the back so they rest easily on the side of the salad bowl, have been one of her most successful inventions.
In 2002, Horst sold Extra Hands for about $200,000 and today the product is available online and in stores around the country.
The Good Life, a kitchen and home accessory store in The Plaza on Third Street South in Naples, has been selling “tons of them, in all different colors” for almost a decade, said Scott Schwarz, the owner’s son. A set costs $7.95.
Horst’s other patented inventions include Corner Guard, a piece of disposable cotton to protect the corners of your mouth from chapping while you’re at the dentist; and Rug Bugs, an anchor to keep area rugs and runners from moving on carpet floors.
The Corner Guard idea came from her experience working at a dentist’s office and her own chapped mouth corners after dental visits. The Rug Bug was inspired by her troubles with an area rug that “walked by itself” from its spot on her dressing room floor.
“There are so many opportunities for invention, people just have to take the time not to smell the roses, but to think,” Horst said. “. . . Just think of the things you do from the time you get up in the morning and how you could make those actions simpler or safer.”
Safety is the motivation behind Good Egg-Bad Egg!, and although her calibrated tester won’t be on the market for a while, Horst urged Easter egg makers to make sure their candidates don’t float, just to be safe.
300 by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley
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