Eggs as fresh as possible for those who don’t want to get (too) dirty

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My mom grew up on a farm and had to collect eggs every morning before school. She hated it, and never let us kids forget how hard she’d worked in her own childhood. So the fad for getting chickens in urban backyards has made me smile.

Today, we saw a post on Tasting Table Everywhere, however, that offers the best of both worlds: cute coops and fresh eggs. The Chicken Eglu from a British company called Omlet is a chicken condo that houses two to four birds -- a bigger structure houses up to 10.

We talked with James Tuthill at Omlet in Oxford, England. He and three other students at the Royal College of Art in London came up with the chicken houses as a school project and then decided to turn it into a business. They’ve been operating in the U.S., out of Iowa, for a few years, he says.

‘It’s just taking off in the States,’ he says, in part because ‘more people got more interested in where their food is coming from.’

The Times found some chicken owners in L.A. recently.

Tuthill has two chickens at home.

‘They lay well, they’re nice and friendly,’ he says.

For its customers, the company provides a guide to owning chickens. Tuthill says taking care of them is easy.

‘You don’t need to talk them,’ he says. Just feed them, clean their homes and collect the eggs. ‘The more time you spend with them, the friendlier they become.’

Photo courtesy of Omlet