Jon Hackett, of Brooklands Farm in St Brelade, also supplies the Co-op, other stores and cafés and restaurants with a range of hand-made pies, pasties and patties, as well as cuts of meat, sausages and burgers.
As extending the opening hours requires planning approval, Mr Hackett has submitted an application to be able to open longer in the week and on a Sunday morning. He is currently allowed to open on two days a week.
He said: ‘We will not necessarily open for six days, but by getting permission to do so we can see if there is a demand. When we have opened on a Sunday morning people who otherwise would not be able to shop with us have said how convenient it is for them.
‘We don’t just want to expand the business – we want to do this to increase the opportunities for Islanders to buy fresh local meat products that have very low food miles.’
His stall in Route des Genêts comprises two mobile trailers – one for cooked products and the other for fresh meat products – which Planning currently requires him to remove when they are not open. Mr Hackett says as it takes a great deal of time and effort to move the trailers and set them up, he hopes if his application is approved they can remain on site for longer.
Mr Hackett retired after a successful career in finance 15 years ago and turned a hobby of keeping pigs into a business. Today he has more than 90 pigs, mostly reared for him by three other local producers but the sows are bred with his stud boar, Titan. He sources his beef from two of the Island’s dairy herds.
As well as his wife, Jenny, and daughter, Katie working with him, usually seven days a week, he also employs two full-time staff.
His family farmed the same land in St Brelade in the 1930s and 40s, growing tomatoes, when the surrounding area was open farmland.
