VFM Spotlight: Hopcott Premium Meats is the go-to stop for your summer barbecue

In this series, the Georgia Straight visits different vendors at the Vancouver Farmers Markets to learn about their business, products, and why they love being at the weekly markets.

Name of vendors? Hopcott Premium Meats managed by market manager and family member Jamie Senger.

What do you sell? We are a farm to fork operations business. We sell all types of beef products, which are hormone antibiotic, and steroid-free. Our steers are grass and free-ranged fed, and later fed with our very own non-GMO cattle corn. We have been farming since 1932 and have come a long way—we are proud of what we have to offer.

We have fresh frozen beef and other deli products, which include all of our prime steak cuts, ground hamburgers, turkey cranberry, beef, onion, and mild Italian dinner sausages to name a few. Our deli products are naturally smoked with hickory chips that includes our special own pepperoni sticks—flavours range from hot to mild, and turkey cranberry to honey garlic. Other products include our famous farmer, polish and Ukrainian sausages, 100 percent beef hotdogs and smokies, as well as our popular beef jerky.

How did you get into your business? We have our very own meat and butcher shop that has been running for about 10 years on the family-owned farm. I have also been selling home-grown cranberries at the farmers markets for over twenty years. So, I came up with branching out our beef products at these same farmers markets in the Lower Mainland, which have been truly successful and well-received.=

What’s your specialty? Our beef, which are called steers, is our specialty. We raise them ourselves in B.C., and naturally dry-age the meat by hanging it in the coolers for 28 days. This creates high quality meat that is way more tender.

Favourite item you sell? My favorite item to sell is the beef and onion dinner sausages, rib-eye steaks, and our pepperoni.

Favourite thing about the city’s farmers markets? I love the city’s farmers markets, including being able to meet the customers first hand, answering all their questions, and hearing what they like to have in terms of healthy choices. We love the atmosphere, as well as the social interactions with other vendors, customers, and Vancouver Farmers Market staff who orchestrate these venues.