Alderspring Organic Grass Fed Beef Newsletter 9-13-2024 - Alderspring Ranch Organic Grass Fed Beef

Dear Friends and Partners,

Welcome to Alderspring’s weekend edition newsletter! Thank you for partnering in what we do!

Below you can find beef discounts, Glenn’s weekly story, and lots of photos from the ranch and range!

Scroll down for this week’s story:

“Secret in the Soil”

This Week’s Store Update & Coupons

NEXT SHIPPING DAY: Monday, September 16th

What’s In Stock

Beef was restocked earlier this week. Unfortunately, many cuts have already sold out, but we still have:

This week’s coupon cuts

Use the code “BONES” to get 10% off organic beef bones.

Use the code “SALMON” to get 5% off wild Alaskan sockeye salmon.

Click the green button below or the green words above to access these cuts!

Special Mention:

Available now are two new quarter beeves (3172 and 3170) that were just trailed back home from the wild range. Both of these steers are not certified organic due to the fact that they were born and raised to calfhood on our neighbors non-organic pasture. They were both 100% grass fed after we picked them up and have never had any antibiotics, hormones, or GMOs. As far as cleanliness and flavor there is no difference between this beef and our organic beef, but due to their non-organic status these quarters provide a 50% savings off our a la carte prices!

Also make sure to check out our new organic grass fed lamb German rosemary sausage!

Get this week’s cuts + more here!

If you have any questions, observations, or comments, just send Kelsey an email at help[at]alderspring[dot]com.

To view and shop quarter beef lot 3170 click HERE.

To view and shop quarter beef lot 3172 click HERE.

Pictures from the ranch this week…

After one of the driest summers in many years, the fall rains have finally arrived!

After the last two days of precipitation, once the clouds cleared, we were able to see the first dusting of snow on the very top of the highest mountain peaks.

Fall grass is some of the best of the year. Cattle and horses thrive on the diverse sward of clover, orchard grass, alfalfa, and sainfoin, among other species.

With the cattle off the range, the hectic pace of summer has slowed a bit. This past Saturday, a few of us drove up to remote Iron Lake. While the others fished the cold, clear waters, I decided to hike as far as I could with limited time toward Hat Creek Lakes. I was a little nervous hiking alone in wolf country, but that was soon forgotten as the country stretched out before me. Undulating glacial valleys gave way to craggy peaks, and I could see the emerald glisten of a small unnamed lake below me. I was struck by the quiet; aside from a bull elk crashing away from my dog and I, the woods emanated a peaceful quiet. I reached the headwaters of the north fork of Hat Creek before having to turn around. If I didn’t know where I was, I would have thought I’d accidentally hiked to Alaska. Despite spending much of the summer in the high country, we still can’t get enough. -Melanie

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Quote of the Week

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.”

– John Updike

This week’s story: “Secret in the Soil”

Dear Friends,

Snow hit the High Country last night. We woke up, and as a soft blanket of clouds lifted off the peaks the transformation of white that had occurred overnight became abundantly clear.

Thankfully all the beeves were found, and now are at home grazing happily in the thick meadows of the ranch. Meanwhile, I’m over at our lease ranch just 5 miles down valley. I’m patrolling through the grass that our cattle have already been through once, immediately after they came out of the high country.

And it struck me: something that I’ve been seeing for a long time but my mind finally rested on. It was the fact that the grass was three or four times thicker than it was when we first got the place.

When we took over this ranch just 3 years ago, bare dirt was more than common than grass; 40% of the ground was simply gray, ashy dirt.

But now vegetation had covered the ground with a rich blanket of growing grass, and instead of hard-pan, I now dig with my pocket knife, and it reveals dark soil complete with worms and dung beetles.

It had just taken 3 short years to make this happen, and even I reel a little bit in disbelief at how fast regeneration had taken place. The only difference that we had applied in management to this land from what had been happening for years and years was ending continuous grazing. In fact, we finally offered the land far more rest than use.

I think it might have breathed a sigh of relief.

Nature had responded in spades, and had already taken care of how it would possibly recolonize it all. It was because the seed was in the soil; it was waiting there for just such a time as this, and the beauty of regeneration had little to do with us and had more to do with non-use than use.

We simply controlled our cattle. I’ve been thinking there’s another story that I would like to share with you that I wrote a few years ago after I observed an incredible surge of regeneration on our high ranges.

Come with me to 7,000 feet of elevation where a fire had ravaged across the landscape and had left in its wake a hopeless smudge of black were there once was beautiful and diverse grassland.

Was all hope lost? I’ll let you decide.

Happy Trails

Click here to read this week’s story: “Secret in the Soil”

And that’s it for this week!

Thanks again for partnering in what we do!

Glenn, Caryl, cowgirls and cowboys at Alderspring.

We’ve been crafting our pastured protein here in Idaho’s Rocky Mountains for nearly 30 years and delivering it direct to our partners for nearly as long. This is wild wellness, delivered from our ranch to your door.

Why is Inventory Low Lately?

Here’s where we’re at on the “low inventory” situation…and why it’s low in the first place! We know many of you have been with us for a long time and rely on us as your source of protein (and we’re so grateful)!

In the last few months, we’ve been hit by a lot of unexpected demand.

When it comes to raising beef, changes in demand can be very difficult to respond to quickly. It takes us 2-3 years to raise an animal to finish. That means we plan our inventory needs about 2 years in advance.

Many companies and producers we know of that sell direct-to-consumer respond to sudden increases in demand by buying outside cattle (often at sale barn auctions) and then selling that beef under their label. This is VERY common.

But this kind of “cow flipping” isn’t something we’re willing to do.

We know the entire history of every beef we sell. That’s important to us, and we know it’s important to you and part of why you trust us to raise your beef.

We’re working right now to gradually increase our available inventory to hopefully provide more beef! But at a certain point, we actually can’t expand further without compromising our standards.

We know that the reason many of you order from us is because we’re small scale. We butcher our cattle at a small processor that only does about 80 head of cattle per week (compared to thousands at a big facility). This also limits our capacity to expand, because they, too, are functioning at capacity right now. We also raise only as many cattle as our pastures can support without degrading our soils. And we’re still small enough that Glenn personally looks at every single steak before he puts it in your box to ship to you. These factors are why you order from us! But it also means occasional inventory limitations.