OUR AIM
Hedley's Trout Farm is proud of its reputation of supplying farm fresh trout of the highest quality. This is
accomplished by:
1- by feeding our tank reared trout the best possible commercial
food ration which is made mostly
from fish meal, a by-product of the herring industry in the
North Sea (no 4 legged land animal protein is used in the feed).
2- by not overcrowding, thus avoiding situations were therapeutics medications would be necessary.
3- by using fresh cool clear spring water (drinking water quality) that is not
recirculated or reused.
4- by quick delivery or having the trout picked-up (whole, cleaned or filleted) the same
day
as the order is received. We endeavor not to keep fish in our
refrigerator overnight and never sell smoked (partially cured) or a
frozen product. Nothing beats 'from water to pan the same day!'
5- by striving for optimum quality (not how big we can grow a trout). Most
of our trout are sold by the time they reach 16" in length or
approximately 1.5
pounds in weight. This means that the body fat is in the proper
proportion to enhance the desired mild delicate flavour; this
also means that we seldom have trout large enough to have those bothersome
pin bones.
(see the article below)
6- we package our filllets with a commercial
vacuum machine to avoid the possibility of cross contamination with
other meats or products (your place and ours).
Pin bone removal in pre-rigor fish
salmon and trout are excellent food; a food which most
consumers [now] prefer bone free. Currently, the larger trout and salmon fillets that are sold as
'fresh' may be 4-5 days old before leaving the processing plant. This is due to the
fact that the removal of pin bones requires that the fish must be aged
3-4
days after slaughtering before processing. The reason for this delay is
that after slaughtering, salmon and trout (nearly all fish) are in a rigor
mortem phase where the pin bones cannot be removed without damaging the
flesh. Filleting must wait until the salmon is out of the
rigor mortem phase. This means that the fish may be 5-6
days old before
it reaches a store. The pin bones in smaller fish will go soft when
cooked but remain hard in larger fish, They are positioned in the
thickest part of the fillets. These
bones while not attached to the back bone are attached to the flesh by
tendons, and the fillet is damaged
or the bones broken if the bones are pulled out without “maturing” the
fish for several days. The pin bones are usually removed by pulling in
order to
keep the fillet “whole”. One systems for pre-rigor pin bone removal is
to remove the bones
by cutting a strip out of the fillet. This leaves a large
scar on the fillet or divides the fillet in two. This method is
wasteful and the fillet may no longer remain aesthetically pleasing.
Serving Ontario's West
Coast Since 1980