Not only does Cathy Blough wants to add more members to Zenhens, the urban farming co-op she runs, but so do the organization's customers, who can't get enough of its eggs and vegetables.
Steve Spencer, grocery and wellness department manager at the Food Conspiracy Co-Op, which sells Zenhens eggs, said shipments often sell out within hours of delivery.
"They sell really well," Spencer said. "We have a few customers asking when her eggs are getting delivered."
Blough usually delivers a batch of up to as many as 20 dozen eggs on Friday mornings, and they're usually sold out by Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, Spencer said.
Blough said her customers want more from Zenhens than it's able to produce.
"They love them. We can't keep up with demand," Blough said. "We're always looking for new members, and to convince people that backyard farming is really valuable - having your own food available to you and providing for others."
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Zenhens sells garden goods, as well as eggs and composted manure from healthy chickens raised by hobbyist farmers in their yards.
The newly incorporated co-op, which had operated informally since 2009, has between 12 and 15 members who span all corners of Tucson - including the northwest and east sides - and surrounding areas. The organization buys eggs and garden products from its members and sells them at farmers markets and natural food stores under the Zenhens brand. Producers can also affix their own labels to products.
"The aim is to instill trust in food," Blough said. "We want to be as close to organic as one can be in a small-scale growing operation. The fact that it's fresh because it's not traveling very far is what gets it sold at farmers markets. That makes a difference."
Members don't use pesticides or herbicides or genetically modified organism (GMO)-treated seeds. They feed chickens with a whole grain mixes and adhere to agreed-upon standards of humane care.
Darcy Nagle-O'Brien, who maintains a coop with 13 chickens at the West Ina and North Oracle area home she shares with her husband, Randy O'Brien, and their 9- and 5-year-old daughters, has been a part of the co-op from the start.
The family regards the chickens as pets, and they live in a structure that Randy designed and built himself. The eggs their chickens produce cover the costs of feeding and maintaining the operation.
Nagle-O'Brien said the many benefits to taking part in the co-op go beyond money.
"The co-op allows us to have some leverage with bulk buying organic food and reaching out to a greater base of customers," she said. "It's also connected us with other chicken owners interested in the same kinds of things we are. We swap chicken-keeping practices and learn from our experiences."
Blough says the co-op is a deal that works out for everyone involved.
"The co-op is a great organization for members and for consumers," she said.
"The whole point of the cooperative, on the consumers' side, is supporting urban farmers, providing them bulk, wholesale prices. On the other side, the co-op can market and sell goods of the producers in ways they might not be able to do or want to do individually. We're now a mechanism for marketing that didn't exist before."
WHERE TO BUY
• Tucson Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays across the street from Maynards Market & Kitchen, 400 N. Toole Ave.
• Aqua Vita Natural Food Market, 2801 N. Country Club Road.
• Food Conspiracy Co-Op, 412 N. Fourth Ave.
• Maynards Market & Kitchen, 400 N. Toole Ave.
TO JOIN ZENHENS
Email Catherine Blough at zenhens@gmail.com. Members must pass an inspection and pay a one-time $100 fee.
Contact reporter Phil Villarreal at 573-4130 or pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
