When Laura Geiges was a little girl, her mother used to bring special things home from Chinatown in New York City. It turned out to be quail eggs.

"We will blow them up. Using them as decorations is how I really love quail eggs, but I have never eaten them," Laura said.

Fast forward a few decades. Laura lives in Wellfleet, and she and her husband Pete share their living room with a small group of newly arrived quails.

"The sound is incredible. They are always talking. You can tell when they are happy, when they panic, and when they are angry. It's really funny like they can't get into the sandbox when they want. I Will sit in front of the sewing machine, they are behind me, and I like to listen to them."

Laura’s quail is Coturnix japonica, a species native to East Asia that has been domesticated since the 12th century. It is thought that coturnix quails were originally raised as songbirds, but eventually, people began to appreciate their eggs.

When I visited, Laura found that one of them had laid another egg. I asked her to describe it.

"This one is huge. It's cream colored with brown spots and sometimes dark brown spots. They are so cute."

Like chickens, mature quails lay an egg most of the time. The eggs are covered with a protective film to keep them fresh until they are washed or refrigerated. But compared with chickens, quail and their eggs are very small.

"They are very hard. You boil them on medium heat for about three minutes and then soak them in an ice bath. They are easier and more reliable to peel than eggs, because eggs are a bit like arg, you can’t go through the membrane, but these guys, They have a membrane that is more rubber-like, so once you squeeze it, the shell will come off easily and easily," Laura said.

She added, “So this is the way we usually like, we just cut them in half and put them on the salad. But as you can see, they are the size of grape tomatoes, so you can really eat them directly. Drop them, explode them like this."

As for some dishes you make with eggs, such as scrambled eggs, this is not a simple exchange. A lot of quail eggs are needed because they are too small. Laura explained that they cook quickly.

Coturnix quails also mature quickly-when Laura got her bird, they were only 8 weeks old, and they were already laying eggs-the chicken takes an average of 26 weeks. Laura said that because of this, some people raise quail as meat birds, but she is more interested in learning to cook with eggs, which requires some special treatment.

"These are Japanese quail egg scissors. The reason you need these scissors is because you can't put them on the bowl. This makes it look like a guillotine. You do it really fast."

This is how you crack raw quail eggs-but Laura says it's too picky, they almost always boil them hard. She made a plate of devil quail eggs for me to taste-it was delicious and labor intensive, which was obviously the subject of raising quail.

"They are very interesting creatures, but between you and me, they need a lot of maintenance."

Maybe not forever pets, Laura Geggs admits, and it's definitely not for everyone. But the short and passionate love for quail eggs is worth it.