We recently had another pork pickup day and took the opportunity to lay out a half hog share to demonstrate what it looks like and weigh how much exactly it is.
Hands down, the most common question we get is, “how much meat is a half share really?” With a the help of a 4-year old added for scale (and cuteness), below is what it looks like! We laid out the cuts in the shape of a pig, so that you can get a sense of where the cuts come from and how much to expect from each area.
As there is a lot of variability in a how you can get a half hog butchered, this is just a common example and each order looks a bit different. This customer did a great job maximizing their order for how their family eats and is a great example of why buying a half hog share is a fantastic value for the pork-lover with sufficient freezer space.
This particular half share had a hanging weight of: 127.5 lbs. which is an average weight, perhaps even a little on the big side. Here’s the breakdown of weights from each section listed above:
Loin:
2 roasts – 2.12, 3.13 lbs.
Chops (4 packs of 2 each) – 2.5, 2.6 ,2.6, 2.3 lbs.
Shoulder:
Boston Butt – 11.3 lbs!
Picnic – 9.1 lbs.
Ribs – 2.8 (a lot smaller than most people assume that they are getting)
Belly (Bacon) – This adventurous customer chose to have the belly cut into 2-3 lb packs to cure and smoke at home: 3.4, 2.1, 3.5 lbs. Most customers have the butcher cure, smoke & slice their bacon for them
Leg:
Ham 9.8 lbs.
Ham Steaks – 2.7, 2.8, 2.4, 2.5 lbs.
Sausage – 17 lbs. of various flavorings
Extras:
Hocks – 2 lbs.
Leaf Lard – 1.1 lbs.
Fatback – 7.3 lbs.
Bones – 2.1 lbs.
Neck/back bones – 1.6 lbs.
Ear – 0.6 lbs.
Extras that this customer didn’t take, but are available: Head, Liver, Skin, Heart, Tail…
Lastly, here’s a roundup of Callywood Farms pork on the plate from us and customers!
From top left to bottom right: Pork chop, pork meatball soup, pizza with ground sausage, fried pork chops, farm girl eating porkchop with bare hands!, braised pork with tomato-mushroom gravy, BACON, onion smothered grilled chop, bacon and apple cinnamon rolls, braised country ribs in tomatoes, pork roast in crockpot with herbs and figs, braised pork with tomato-mushroom gravy, boston butt and hocks/feet on the smoker, pork and beans stew with collards, homemade chorizo with blackbeans over pumpkin polenta, rendering lard, a whole hog on the smoker, grilled pork loin, rendered lard.
Callywood Farms 
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