Growing up, Kirsten would enjoy an abundant supply of eggs at the kitchen table – they would have a boiled egg for breakfast, which her late grandad always took the lid off for her, and occasional treats such as quail’s eggs on toast.
“They’re such a good, quick, easy thing to make – you can always make something I you have an egg,” she says.
Kirsten enjoys the variety of tastes and textures, from the creamy yolk of a turkey’s egg to the richness of duck eggs, which she loves to use in making Victoria sponge and bannocks.
Scoop stocks Bressay eggs, supplied by L&S Gifford, which “sell like hotcakes”, while duck eggs from Bressay, Sandwick and Trondra, as well as from her granny’s farm, also prove popular.
She is in no doubt that a high standard of animal welfare gives the local produce an edge: “Shetland hens are usually very happy walking around, enjoying lots of space. A happy hen does lay a better egg.”
We asked Kirsten to share one of her favourite recipes using eggs, and she provided a method for a cheese souffle. It is a dish her granny taught her to make, adapted from a BBC Good Food method.
“It sounds really hard to make, but the recipe is really easy – a thick cheese sauce with a good cheese in it, eggs and yolks in. We’ve made it a few times this last year – it’s delicious!”