Introduction

Welcome to Hill Farm Finest

All Praise and thanks is for Allah alone who has given us this life everything we have in this life and to whom we owe everything.

To all my beloved friends I welcome you to the Hill Farm Finest website. It has been a long hard struggle to launch the site but this has been due to a number of factors that have enabled us to learn about our business and to make the experience of using this site better for all of you.

Over the last 17 months since our inception we have learned and listened to our customer base, and through this learning we will in sha Allah make your experience of dealing with us a much better and smoother one.

Hill Farm Finest has been set up primarily to serve the domestic residential market. It is clear that people at home have found it notoriously difficult to find the finest quality of halal beef and lamb in the UK. Historically it has not been available at all, however, those in the know have been able to get hold of something either from the U.S or Australia. Other than that we have had to get whatever we can from Supermarkets that have Halal outlets or wherever else it can be sourced from.

We at Hill Farm Finest aim to change this by supplying a true farm to fork experience.  We completely breed and rare our own animals and have generations of experience in doing so. My fellow Co-founder is a fourth generation farmer and is well versed in the art of rearing animals to develop a fine taste and to develop the marbling to create a fantastic end product for us to enjoy. We have total control over our animals that we provide to the end user, all our animals are born on the farm or are brought in at an early age typically 6 months. They are then reared to reach the age of a steer or heifer (24-30 months) before they are slaughtered. The slaughter process is the only time the animals leave our farm (up to 24 hours) otherwise in their life cycle they remain with us hence our offering “a complete farm to fork experience”. This is quite unique in the halal market in the UK when it comes to Aberdeen Angus and lamb. This is why “our process sets us apart”.

I thought that this first blog post should be as informative as possible and more of a FAQ session so any questions that you may have can be answered.

All our products are 100% Halal, I should add here, in essence you can’t get 90% halal or 50% halal. Products are either halal or not. What I mean to say is that we do not stun the animal at the time of slaughter not even in the slightest. We are privileged in this country that we are allowed to slaughter our livestock in the way Prophet Muhammed, may peace be upon him, has taught us and I feel no need to compromise on this what so ever.

All the Aberdeen Angus’s are dry aged in our purpose built chiller on the farm for a minimum of 21 days prior to being ready for processing. We slaughter pretty much every week, therefore now after a year of being in business we are pretty much always in stock Alhamdulillah. Having our own farm means that if demand is high all we need to do is slaughter more animals. We are not dependent on any outside factor.

The Lamb however, are slaughtered on demand and slaughtered once a week and typically not hung although if they were to be hung this would enhance the tenderness and taste.

This answers another question which I am frequently asked, why are the Aberdeens hung for a minimum period of 21 days. Well the answer is what I have mentoned above the hanging process enhances the tenderness and taste. Personally, what I have learnt is that the longer the age the tastier and more tender the meat. We actually have customers who make requests for the animals to be hung longer.

At Hill Farm Finest we offer a completely bespoke service, every order is unique, we process every order to your exact specification. 1 steak or 10, everything is made to measure so to speak. Once an order is placed it is processed, weighed, priced up, and packed then boxed up and ready for delivery. In London all deliveries are currently done by me as it allows me to get to know my customers and all deliveries in London in excess of £50 delivery is free. Outside London we use a courier who delivers next day, free delivery outside London are for orders over £75. Delivery days in London are Tuesday and Friday. For the rest of the country our dispatch days are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

If these delivery days are not suitable then anyone is welcome to come to the farm and buy direct from the shop. If you would want to do this then please contact me and I will make sure someone is at the farm to serve you.

We have tried to make our ordering process as simple as possible, please find below a synopsis of how it works. On the website you will find the process of ordering detailed.

Most of our products come vacuum-packed and are packed individually. Everything is labeled, priced and weighed so you can see the exact price of each item. None of our products are processed, pre-packed or frozen, we only do fresh at Hill Farm Finest.

Please read our terms and conditions and this will allow you to understand our responsibilities in more detail.

We often get asked if we supply to trade and the simple answer is yes we do. All trade is welcome but we carry out checks to make sure that our trade customers value quality like we do before we start supplying. Our brand is most important to us and we will not do anything that compromises our brand values.

In the interest of our customers I will inform you when a new restaurant comes on board and what in particular they are taking from us. We are all about transparency at Hill Farm Finest and this is another step in enabling that. We take huge pride in our produce and make every effort in making sure that you have access to the finest caliber of meat that is available in the UK. It is about time that the Halal meat market gets what it deserves and it is my mission to give you what you deserve.

Finally, I would like to thank every single one of you who have been using us over the last 17 months without you none of this would have been possible. On the same token I look forward to all our new customers so you too can sample why we are becoming synonymous with being the finest supplier of Prime Aged Aberdeen Angus and Lamb in the UK.

WaSalaam

Usman Rauf
Co Founder