Numbers have swelled to 50 and she is now about to add another 25-30 to cope with her foray into selling eggs at the Oamaru Farmers' Market.
The inaugural Oamaru Farmers' Market opens on Sunday at the old railway goods yard near Oamaru Harbour between 9.30am and 1pm. It has attracted a wide variety of stallholders.
Mrs Deed, who lives near Kakanui and has also been supplying her eggs to the Kakanui Store, intends selling eggs, vegetables, garden plants, punnets of vegetable plants and possibly some herbs.
Becoming involved in a farmers' market was something she had wanted to do for a while and she was delighted that Oamaru finally had such a venture.
Mrs Deed was opposed to battery farming of hens, saying she did not approve of it. Her hens were based in an old piggery, where they laid their eggs - so freshness was guaranteed - and they were let out daily to roam around the property.
The chicken manure and sawdust from the piggery then went into her compost, which was used on the vegetables.
If demand for the eggs "really took off" at the market, there was another barn on the property that could be converted to a hen-house.
A decision was made last year to reintroduce a weekly farmers' market to Oamaru and a public meeting in February with Farmers' Markets NZ chairman Chris Fortune created a lot of interest. The start date meant it was up and running for visitors to the Rugby World Cup.
Market manager Metka Conlan was thrilled with the response - "It's exactly what we were after" - and 20 stalls were registered for the opening market.
"It's been a long haul but we can't believe that we're finally here," she said.
Produce included bread, pasta, meat and smallgoods, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, hazelnuts, frozen berries and lots of ready-to-eat food. The slogan for the market was "get fresh with the locals".