Here’s the deal: if you’re not saving your eggshells, you should. I’m talking mostly about washed and dried, finely ground eggshells. They explode with calcium and are absolutely edible. Consider these ideas:

Research shows people who suffer from inflammation and joint pain find relief by from ground eggshells. After grinding them into a fine powder, just add a teaspoon or two to your smoothies, juices, soups, or stews.

Skin care experts are big fans of eggshell face masks. To a whisked egg white, add 1 tablespoon of ground eggshell. I like to add a few drops of lavender essential oil to this. Spread the mixture over your face and wait for it to dry. Once it does, wash it off with cool water and experience younger-looking skin. If you’re prone to dry skin, just use the egg yolk rather than the white.

You can make an eggshell powder using a Magic Bullet, Vitamix, or Blendtec.

Saving crushed eggshells for your stock pot is an easy way to increase the mineral content of your broth. Besides calcium, you’ll be adding traces of zinc, iron, magnesium, fluoride, phosphorus, and selenium. Just be sure to screen them out before serving making your recipe.

Now for a few uses for unwashed eggshells:

You can even use coarsely crushed eggshells to scrub your pots and pans. Just sprinkle some over your scrubby sponge or dish rag and watch how much easier that tough, stuck-on stuff comes off.

Eggshells can also benefit the birds that visit your backyard. Crush them well and mix them in with your packaged birdseed. Science shows this benefits birds especially during the spring—egg-laying season.

And perhaps you avid gardeners already know that eggshells make perfect seed-starting containers. Once your seedlings are ready to plant or transplant, you just crush the shell slightly and plant away. The calcium in the shell is a tremendous benefit to the seedling—especially tomato starts. Calcium is the secret ingredient to avoiding blossom end rot on developing tomatoes.

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But not just tomato plants benefit from the calcium from eggshells. Peppers, squash, broccoli, cabbage, fruit trees, and herbs love eggshells—whether just crushed or ground into powder. The minerals they provide encourage blossoms to set, meaning you’ll likely have more fruit.

Lastly, if you’re not inclined to crush or grind them, just toss them into a compost pile (yours or your neighbors). Considering the price of eggs today, it makes good sense to squeeze every last bit of benefit out of them, don’t you think?

    Alice Osborne
    Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com