Welcome to Central Park Farms

Not anymore!

While grass-fed beef, pasture raised pork and free-range chicken and eggs are still at the heart of what we do, you'll find much more than meat in our farm store.

We also carry chef-crafted prepared meals, local dairy, fresh sourdough bread, pantry staples, sauces, snacks, drinks and a growing selection of products from other local farmers and makers.

Whether you're shopping for a week's worth of groceries or just stopping in for dinner, we've got plenty to choose from.

At this time, we don't offer whole, half or quarter animals for custom processing.

Over the years, we've found that more and more of our customers prefer the convenience of shopping from our farm store, where they can choose exactly the cuts they want. As demand for our meat has grown, we've chosen to focus our butcher shop on keeping our freezers stocked with individual cuts and prepared foods, rather than custom processing whole animals.

If you're looking to fill your freezer, our Mixed Meat Packs are a great alternative. They're carefully put together with a selection of our most popular cuts, making it easy to stock up while enjoying a little bit of everything.

If you're not sure which one is right for you, we'd be happy to help you choose one.

Our prepared meals are created by Chef Adrian Beatty of Salt & Thyme, who has been working with Central Park Farms for many years.

Together, we've developed a collection of ready-to-heat meals, side dishes, soups, sauces and desserts that make getting dinner on the table a little easier.

Some customer favourites are available year-round, while others change with the seasons based on what's being harvested locally and what's available from our farm.

Most of our prepared meals are sold frozen so you can keep them on hand for those busy nights when cooking from scratch isn't in the cards.

Each product includes cooking instructions right on the package, making them an easy option for quick weeknight dinners.

At this time, our prepared foods and value-added meat products don't include Nutrition Facts labels.

To provide certified nutrition information, every recipe would need to be sent to a laboratory for testing. While that's a great fit for large manufacturers producing the same products year after year, we've chosen to focus on creating small batches, seasonal specials and new recipes throughout the year.

That flexibility allows Chef Adrian and our team to keep introducing new meals and making the most of what's available from our farm and other local producers.

If you have questions about ingredients or food allergens, we're always happy to help. All ingredients are listed on our product labels, and our team can answer questions about specific products.

Absolutely.

In fact, freezing meat at its peak freshness helps lock in both flavour and quality.

All of our meat is professionally vacuum sealed before being blast frozen, which helps protect it from freezer burn and extends its freezer life without sacrificing taste.

Many of our customers actually prefer keeping a freezer stocked so they can enjoy premium local meat whenever they need it.

When kept frozen, vacuum-sealed meat stays at its best for up to one year.

While food safety guidelines often provide minimum recommendations, properly packaged frozen meat can maintain excellent quality well beyond that. We recommend using the oldest packages first and keeping your freezer at or below -18°C (0°F) for the best results.

Unlike a grocery store, we can't simply order more.

Each animal produces a limited number of every cut. For example, each beef animal only has two tenderloins, two briskets and a limited number of ribeye steaks.

Once those cuts are sold, they're gone until the next group of animals is processed. That's one of the unique parts of buying directly from a farm.

Because every animal is different.

While our butchers work hard to cut steaks as consistently as possible, no two animals are exactly alike. That means you'll naturally see some variation in the size and weight of individual cuts.

All of our fresh meat products, including our sausages and burger patties are made without gluten or dairy.

Some of our chef-crafted prepared foods do contain gluten or dairy, so we always recommend checking the ingredient list on each product.

While we take great care during production, neither our butcher shop or our commercial kitchen are dedicated gluten-free facilities, so cross-contact is possible.

In the farm store we have a growing collection of gluten-free products like flour and baking mixes, snacks, sauces, and more.

Our dry-cured meats use nitrites as a necessary preservative to increase shelf life, enhance colour, and most importantly, to eliminate the harmful Botulism bacteria.

The local health authority requires all producers to use one or the other. We choose to use naturally occurring nitrites (celery salt).

All cured deli meats use sodium nitrate or nitrite as preservatives, even those labelled organic or natural.

No, we are not certified organic. That said, we care about the quality of the meat we provide and raise our animals in a way that aligns with our values and provides a safe product for our customers.

We don’t use an pesticides on our pastures.

Yes.

In some countries, eggs are sold unwashed and can be stored at room temperature because they still have their natural protective coating, called the "bloom."

Here at Central Park Farms, we're required to wash our eggs because we operate a licensed butcher shop and commercial kitchen under BC food safety regulations. Once that protective coating is removed, the eggs need to be refrigerated.

So while you may have heard that farm-fresh eggs don't need refrigeration, ours do.

Supporting local doesn't stop with our own farm.

Many of the products you'll find in our farm store come from other farmers, ranchers and food producers here in British Columbia. We carefully choose partners whose values and commitment to quality align with our own.

All brands available in our on farm store are Canadian only.

By shopping with us, you're supporting a community of local food producers, not just our family farm.

At various times through the years, we have partnered with other farmers and ranchers that we know and trust to provide meat to our growing customer base. This includes another ranching family near our ranch in Rock Creek and a farmer we have partnered with in the past to provide lamb to our community.

If and when we partner with another farm it is in partnership, and they are producing meat to our high-standards of care and the meat is cut by our on-farm butcher shop.

Outside of our farm operations, our on-farm, health-authority licensed, butcher shop does cut meat for other farms that is sold either to their customers or through wholesale outlets.