First Look: Farm and Field Butchers

Rebecca Teskey opened Farm and Field Butchers in December 2016 so she could use both her passion for cooking and lessons learned in a pre-veterinarian program to provide customers with quality, locally sourced meat from ethical farms.

“I was half-owner of the Village Butcher in Oak Bay until I sold my share last July and opened my own place. I love to do my job of sourcing and making great products for my customers,” Teskey explained while taking a few minutes away from her busy shop where she makes use of everything from the animals they butcher. “I make two kinds of ramen broth from pork and poultry, confit from pork shoulder, bacon jam, steak sauce, duck confit and sausages, including date and brandy, plum and brandy and pecorino and arugula.

“I really like to serve people and produce interesting things for them,” the young butcher continued. “We make marinated chicken halves, stuffed roasts, lots of products where my customers just have to throw them in the oven and enjoy wonderful meals.”

Local sources include pasture-raised lamb from Lorraine and John Buchanan’s Parry Bay Farm and Violaine Mitchell and Tom Henry’s ethically grown heritage pork from Still Meadow Farm. Teskey and her staff of six practice whole-animal butchery to produce a vast offering of organic, free-range products in their new, 1,777-square-foot space in the heart of Victoria’s burgeoning food district at Fort and Blanshard Streets.

“I have an amazing staff,” Teskey enthused, “and I’ve learned the importance of nutrition that comes from the ethical treatment of animals.”

Besides her pre-veterinarian study, Teskey spent six years working in one of the most prestigious and highly regarded kitchens in North America as well as other restaurants during her San Francisco Bay-area sojourn a decade ago.

“If I mention the name of the place in Berkeley, it’s the only thing anyone will ever write about,” Teskey joked. “It was an important learning experience, but so was my schooling, my other restaurant experience and my six years at Village Butcher. At Farm and Field, we’re using 200 chickens, one cow, eight pigs, several lambs and mutton, rabbits, ducks and turkeys every week, and we try to respect the animals and our farmers’ labour by using all parts of the beasts. Besides butchering meat, I’m making a lot of quality products in my kitchen, and my staff and I are loving the experience.”

Farm and Field Butchers

1103 Blanshard St. | 250-415-8387 | farmandfieldbutchers.com

– BY JOSEPH BLAKE (photo by Rebecca Wellman)