Downtown Mesa store serves backyard farmers

Mar. 3—With increased egg prices, a downtown Mesa farm store helps people from running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Inspire Farms Happy Healthy Organic is a small family-run feed shop at 206 E. Main St. in the heart of downtown Mesa that opened during the pandemic.

Tiffiny Lilley said she started with the basic goal of creating a convenient and easy to access source for organic non-GMO animals and feed without having to buy in bulk and like name given by her daughter.

A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal, microorganism or other organism whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology, according to the NonGMO Project, which campaigns against combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

"We inspire farms, one backyard at a time," Lilley said. "And I also hope that I'm inspiring people to do it in a really colorful happy way."

Lilley moved to Arizona in 2004 from California to become a homeowner and now owns a half-acre property with her husband downtown that is full of colorfully painted coops for her own chickens.

It all started as "hanging out with some cute chicks" while homeschooling her daughters but hatched into a whole new endeavor.

"I thought that raising chickens would be a lot of wonderful learning lessons," Lilley said. "And it was, and we loved it and the kids were super-excited about it for the first year."

Eventually, her kids grew up and Lilley grew attached to the chicks and started a feed store that piggybacked off her husband's company at a warehouse near Broadway and Extension Road, a grassroots operation to provide her chickens the best possible feed at the most affordable price.

After closing that warehouse, Lilley said she opened the downtown store, expanding the retail of more fresh, organic locally grown options as well as live chickens.

"In the last three years, it's grown incredibly, because I think people finally realize the value of keeping chickens in the backyard and the different benefits, besides just eggs," Lilley said.

Inspire Farms focuses on organic non-GMO feed for a variety of fowl and farm animals, but also sells feeders, durable Made-in-the-USA coops and other items that help support urban farming and creative sustainability, blending creativity with wholesome options "to create happier, healthier families and communities."

More than just selling feed and fowl, Lilley wants to educate people about the ecosystem they'll bring into their backyard that ensure they always have a resource to come back time and time again.

Now, raising chickens has become a hot commodity to the point where Lilley said she's considered teaching Chicken 101 to answer all fowl questions.

"I let them know as they progress through the experience of raising chicks that they can always come back in reach out and get their questions answered because they'll have new ones as they as they grow," Lilley said.

Lilley said she once wrote an article about with a dozen Grade A reasons to keep chickens, besides the obvious reason of fresh eggs, including pest control, compost turning, beautiful "ornaments" in yards and feeding the topsoil.

She calls topsoil "one of the number one commodities on the planet that is going away and is being stripped and chickens help replace that."

A big contributor to "eggflation" comes from some of the largest egg producers "culling" their stock — sending an inferior or surplus farm animal to slaughter.

It takes six to eight weeks to get baby chicks outside and another four to six months and up to a year for a chicken to start laying eggs, and culling birds will lead to a gap in production.

Lilley said when the pandemic, production would be disrupted.

"When that happened, that was my thought: 'we're going to feel this in a year or two,'" Lilley said.

But a decrease in production could also come from nature itself because chickens need 14 hours of daylight to lay properly, Lilley said.

During the winter, a lack of sunlight creates a lack of eggs, and with less eggs demand goes up. A quick fix: an LED light on a timer in a coop.

"It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive," Lilley said. "A little extra light can make a big difference."

She also advises would-be chicken farmers to rethink what they eat and in turn what their food eats, avoiding things like dog kibble, because if you won't eat it, your chickens shouldn't either.

"Your eggs are going to be only as good as what you feed your birds and a lot of people years back didn't think about that," Lilley said.

Lilley said she sells her feed at a "cottage discount" below retail and though it requires her to sell a little more, she focuses on selling organic non-GMO feed for chickens, ducks, goats, horses, rabbits, turkey, quail and other game birds. She only stocks her customers' favorite products.

Their custom order process works to ensure a constant influx of orders for in-demand products, including the various breeds of chickens on her website.

Special orders or items out of stock will automatically replenish with their next feed order every two to four weeks and customers will receive a notification for upon arrival.

An artist at heart, Lilley said she hopes she makes people happy when looking at her art, such as the mural in the parking lot of her store that draws people in and motivates them to have fun with their farms.

Heather Russell started as a customer buying the raw milk has now worked at Inspire Farms for more than two years.

A new chicken farmer herself, Russell said, "It's like you could walk in the door and we have everything you need, if you want chickens in your backyard. And if you don't, then we offer a lot of fresh local farm things."

Stella Wick started working there in July as a part of an internship while studying sustainable food systems and biomimetic design at Arizona State University.

Wick said she also just walked in one day for raw milk and other organic foods and said now works as a full-time employee.

Wick comes from a long line of North Dakota farmers, but grew up in Portland, Oregon, where family owns chickens.

She loves how the store aligned with the values and dreams she has for more sustainable food systems.

"I'd like to see how I can apply sustainable design into our food system so that you know we're wasting less, we're being more efficient with the resources that we have," Wick said. "More people are connected to their food which is important for human health and overall connectivity."

Though she still lives in an apartment and can't own chickens yet, Wick said she loves working at the store and meeting new people who have the same interests in food as her.

"I love meeting all the people here, I love working with everyone and I get to learn more about local food and farmers and really what it takes to connect people with their food all the time," Wick said. "I love it here."

Information: inspirefarms.com