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A model of resilience and regeneration

Farm Journal

Keep up with what's happening on the farm.

Highgrove Farm – Year One

Farm Journal, Home, Projects by BenPosted February 19, 2021

Part One – The first Six Month There’s a lot to report, so we’ve broken it into two posts: the first six months with a bit of an intro about

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Who wants some bacon?

Book of the Farm, Farm Journal, Home, Projects by BenPosted September 7, 2020Tags: Pigs
Sticky Post

Are you interested in buying local, improving resilience and purchasing high quality pork while supporting local farming? Then this is your lucky day! 



Our Pigs

Our pigs are of mixed-breed Durock, Hampshire, Landrace and Yorkshire.  Our goal throughout has been to raise the happiest, healthiest pigs possible.

Apart from basking in the sun and taking mud baths in their wallows, our pigs have been eating a combination of high-quality Vancouver Island-sourced feed, apple pomace, fallen fruit from our trees, and all the natural offerings from the pasture. Rounded out with plenty of back scratching, these have been some pretty contented pigs.

How’s does the process work?

We know many people have never bought meat directly from the farmer, so we want to walk you through the process. We know you all only want the bacon, but farmers traditionally sell meat by the whole animal, the side (half) or the quarter. Buying a side is the most common way to do it and it represents enough pork for a small family for a year (unless you are big meat eaters).

What’s in a side?

Each side has a mix of pork chops, roasts, sausages, ribs, ham and bacon.

When you order a side, you get to select the size of roasts, thickness of chops, bone-in or boneless, which cuts you’d like cured or smoked, and what sort of sausage you prefer (if any).  We guestimate that you’ll get 55-70 pounds of finished pork – with variation coming from the size of the pig, and the selection of bone-in vs. boneless cuts.

Quarters are generally the same mix of cuts, but, obviously, about half as much.

What will it cost?

We’re offering our pork at $5/pound (based on the hanging weight1) plus the butchering costs. The price of butchering varies slightly based on your custom cutting requests, but run $0.90 per pound for regular cuts, and more for smoked meat (like hams and bacon) or sausages.  Butchering will be done by Edwin Crabbe in Duncan, in association with Braun Meats.  We guestimate your invoice to be in the neighborhood of $610-$665 (incl. pork, butchering and taxes) for a side (and about half that for a quarter).

Again, variation in price is a result of pig size and butchering choices.

Pick-up Process

Your pork will come frozen from the butcher.  It is critical that you’re able to pick it up the day it’s ready at 5441 Highgrove Rd (see map), as we don’t have freezer space for 14 sides!  We’re expecting the orders to be ready the second week of October (Oct 11-17); but it depends on the butcher.  We’ll give you as much advance notice as possible.  Plan on having about 3 cubic feet of freezer space ready.

Pre-Order Now

Preference will be given to folks who would like to order a side (that’s half a pig).  We’ll likely be able to fill smaller orders as well, and will address those on a first-come, first-served basis.   Please fill out the attached form by September 19th to reserve your pork.

We will follow up with phone calls/emails to confirm your order, and to collect your custom butchering requests.  We anticipate having your pork available for pick-up in the second week of October (Oct 11-17).


1 Live weight refers to the weight of the animal when it goes to market. The hanging weight is the weight after slaughter which removes much of the internal organs – about 70% of the live weight. The actual weight of final meat products is reduced again by about 30% of the hanging weight as most bones and excess fat is removed. Again, the final weight of meat will depend on the custom cutting instructions you choose.

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The Pig Project

Comment 1Book of the Farm, Farm Journal, Projects by BenPosted May 23, 2020Tags: Pigs View 26

Pigs have been part of traditional farms for thousands of years for a lot of good reasons. Here is some information about how we are integrating pigs into Highgrove and why.

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Farm Journal: 6 May, 2020

Comment 3Farm Journal by BenPosted May 6, 2020Tags: Community, Compost, Pigs View 37
Farm Journal: 6 May, 2020

Another nice day. High 15. A little splatter of rain out of no where, but mostly blue skies with puffy clouds and quite breezy. In fact, breezy enough that it

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Do Piglets Go To Heaven

Comment 2Farm Journal, Projects by Roland MauricePosted April 20, 2020View 43

Yesterday one of our piglets died. Another one is sick and hopefully is on the mend but, like an infant, it can’t tell us what’s going on so we wait

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Journal Entry for March 30, 2020

Comment 2Farm Journal by Roland MauricePosted March 30, 2020View 33

But I have to say how I’m amazed at how much we actually got done in a week, and it hasn’t been because of the pandemic. The social isolation has

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Daily Journal: 25 March, 2020

Comment 1Farm Journal by BenPosted March 25, 2020View 28
Daily Journal: 25 March, 2020

The weather started cloudy but ended up sunny and warm with a high around 8c. We’re on day 11 (I think) of physical isolation. We haven’t been in quarantine –

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Welcome to Highgrove, or…

Comment 3Farm Journal by BenPosted March 23, 2020Tags: weekly View 105

We’re mostly moved in now and wanted to share a bit on an update, especially in light of the covid-19 pandemic.

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Highgrove Farm & Commons

Farm Journal, Projects by BenPosted March 13, 2020View 4
Highgrove Farm & Commons

This is a sample post to test out fonts.

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Starting Fresh

Farm Journal, Projects by BenPosted February 21, 2020View 1100
4.0/5

Welcome to Highgrove Farm and Commons – a brand new farm on Pender Island, BC.

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  • Frank Letchford on The Pig Project
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Our Housewarming FundRazr

We moved into our new farm about 2 weeks before stores in our area started to close because of the pandemic. We need to fully provision a functional farm from nothing ASAP. Please help us out by contributing financially at Our FundRazr or by contributing unused tools and supplies if you live on Pender Island.

Recent posts

Highgrove Farm - Year One
February 19, 2021 by Ben
Who wants some bacon?
Who wants some bacon?
September 7, 2020 by Ben
The Pig Project
The Pig Project
May 23, 2020 by Ben

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