Brewery of Eggshells is an Irish

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...

collected in 1825 by

Thomas Crofton Croker Thomas Crofton Croker (15 January 1798 – 8 August 1854) was an Irish antiquary, best known for his ''Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland'' (1825–1828), and who also showed considerable interest in Irish song and music. ...

in his first volume of ''Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland'' Croker, Thomas Crofton (1834)
Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland vol. 1
p28 London: John Murray. Retrieved 6 November 2017.

Synopsis

A woman had to leave her twin babies alone for a time. When she returned, she saw two elves in blue petticoats cross her path. The babies looked the same, but would not grow. She and her husband argued about whether the children were theirs. A wise man told her to make pottage in an eggshell, as if she intended to feed the entire troop of harvesters with it. When she did, the children exclaimed on it as something they had never seen, though they were older than acorns grown into oaks. She threw them into the water, which made their own parents take them back and give back the twins.

References

Irish fairy tales Irish folklore {{Portal , Children's literature