Have you heard of Hope Meat Supplies? I stumbled across it by happy accident on The Corner Cafe’s website. (The Corner Cafe is a Durban treasure). If you’re a Natalian, you’ll be glad you’re reading this just as the summer braai season starts.
Hope Meats is an extraordinary meat supplier based in the farming area of Richmond. Michael and Vikki Ker-Fox have taken it upon themselves to provide families and restaurants with truly remarkable meat products. They’re best known for their ethical farming and butchery values, as well as their award-winning meat which is free-range (other than the pork) and also free of hormones and antibiotics. In addition, their animals are treated with great care and respect.
To give you an idea of the story from hoof to hook:
Our beef is bred and raised on the rolling hills and mountains of Underberg. Free to roam and graze wherever they please creates a natural and stress-free environment for our animals, it also means that they build muscle naturally due to the terrain.
The cattle are brought down to our Richmond farm three months before being sent to the abattoir. On this farm, they are fed on the finest home-grown maize (only organic fertilizer is used on the maize).
Throughout our animal’s lives, our main priority is their wellbeing and health. As such they undergo the correct worming programmes, and if one of them should fall ill, they are treated with antibiotics. However, once they have been treated with antibiotics, but they will not come through our butchery. Every week we hand-pick our stock for the butchery ensuring we always get the cream of the crop. We use a local registered abattoir which is small enough to track our carcasses and are situated close to our farm so there is no stress for our animals during transport. They are delivered first thing in the morning and we ensure they are the first to go through the system so there is no build up of adrenaline. They are slaughtered humanely, checked by a health inspector and graded. We collect our stock the next day to dry-age on the hook in our cold room.
FAQs
Hope Meats has a fascinating FAQ section, useful for any meat-eater interested in learning more about how meat is produced. Do you know what constitutes “organic meat” and why it’s almost impossible to find in SA? Have you ever wondered how best to thaw frozen meat or what dry-aging is? Head over to the FAQ to find out.
Predator Policy
Before my first purchase I contacted Hope to find out about their predator policy, as I wanted to make sure that I was buying sustainable meat that hadn’t caused harm, injury or death to leopards, caracal, jackal and the like. The response made me want to place an order immediately.
- Farm staff regularly patrol the grounds for snares and remove them.
- Predators are never poisoned.
- During calving and lambing season the animals are brought in and guarded by night watchmen who chase predators away.
Order and delivery
Hope takes online meat orders and delivers to specific areas for collection.
To give you an idea of the quality of their products, Hope Meats supplies some of Durban’s best restaurants, including:
- Cafe 1999
- Unity
- The Corner Cafe
You can find out more on their website, and via this fantastic article.
Do you know of any ethical meat producers in your area?
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