Buying Packages From Kezialain Farm

Our 20-pound variety pack includes a
mixture of steaks, roasts and other cuts, and
from 7 to 10 pounds of ground beef. They
are made up ahead of time, but if it includes
a cut you really don't want, we will substitute
something else you can use.

A quarter averages 90 to 110 pounds of
meat, which will fit in 4 to 5 cubic feet of
freezer space. We sell mixed quarters, so
you get a full range of cuts, not just those
from the front or back half.

If you buy two quarters (a side) before it's
butchered, you can have it cut to order -
decide what cuts you want, roasts or steaks,
thickness of steaks, how lean the ground
beef and many other specifics. When
ordering a side you can also have it
wrapped in butcher paper instead of vacuum
packaging and save 20 cents a pound.

Quarters cost $4.65 per pound of hanging
weight if the cuts are vacuum packed. Butcher
paper wrapping is also available for a side or if
two people buying quarters want the butcher
paper - at $4.45 a pound. Average hanging
weight is 150 - 175 pounds.

At $4.65 a pound, a 150 pound quarter would
cost about $700. The meat weighs about 2/3
of the hanging weight - or roughly 100 pounds
for a 150 pound quarter. (See box below for
details.)

Hanging Weight and
Take Home Weight

The weight of the meat before it is aged and
processed into individual cuts is called the
hanging weight. The price of a quarter is
determined by the hanging weight at $4.65 a
pound.

The weight of the meat cuts you take home
averages 2/3 of the hanging weight. (In
addition, you can also have part of the
marrow, neck and joint bones, suet, oxtail,
liver and other organ meats if you want as
part of your quarter.

What Happens To The
Other Third Of Th
e Hanging Weight?

Some of the hanging weight is lost when
moisture evaporates during the dry aging
process.

All good quality beef, whether grain or grass
fed, is dry aged. This enhances flavor and
tenderizes the meat. As moisture
evaporates, the weight of the quarter
decreases. Supermarket meat is almost
never dry aged; you pay for all the extra
liquid in it and get inferior flavor.

The rest of the weight difference between
hanging and take home weight is the bone
and fat that are removed when the meat is
cut. The actual amount depends on several
factors including the number of boneless
cuts and how lean the ground beef is. (We
usually ask for 85 to 90% lean ground beef -
as lean as the slaughterhouse can make it.)

You can buy our meat at our farm as eighths, quarters or sides, or in smaller packages
described below. You can buy individual pieces at one of the stores in the area that sell our
meat. (See Stores.)

Our farm is in Westtown, New York, in western Orange County. We're close to the borders of
both New Jersey and Pennsylvania, about 15 or 20 minutes from Middletown, Port Jervis,
Warwick and Sussex New Jersey, and a little over an hour from the George Washington
Bridge. We encourage people to come to the farm and see where your meat is raised. We
don't ship, but if you can't make it to the farm we could try to arrange a delivery.

Our meat is processed at Leona Meat, a certified organic butcher in Troy, Pennsylvania. It is
dry aged from 7 to 10 days, cut, vacuum packed and immediately frozen.

Our naturally raised beef is 100% grass
fed but not certified organic. See About
Our Meat for more information. We usually
have naturally raised ground beef
available; sometimes we also have
quarters and variety packs. These are
less expensive than our organic meat.
Contact us if you're interested and we'll tell
you what we have.

The eighths are quarters divided in half, as
exactly as possible. They cost $4.90 a
pound of hanging weight. (See the
explanation of hanging weight on left.)

If the hanging weight of a quarter was 150
pounds, an eighth would cost about $370
($4.90 times half the hanging weight, or 75
pounds). It would include somewhere
around 50 pounds of meat - 2/3 of the
hanging weight. It would take 2 to 3 cubic feet
of freezer space to store. (These are all
general aveages and depend on the
specific animal and the cuts.)