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This Week’s Story: Blue Nights

This week’s story comes from Abby Kelly, the second oldest Elzinga daughter. Click the button below to read it and see the pictures.

Store News

Next Shipping Date: Monday, February 17th

We generally ship every Monday, holiday weeks excepting (see calendar). You’ll get a tracking number when we ship your order. UPS may initially show an extra day of transit time, but will correct late Monday night when orders hit the Salt Lake hub.

Next Restock Date: Wednesday, February 19th

We restock every Wednesday and send out a sale flyer on Wednesday in the early evening with the week’s deals.

This Week’s Reader-Only Deals

Use the code “#2SIXTEENTH” to get 5% off #2: grass fed (not certified organic) sixteenth with shoulder tender, flat iron, and sirloin steaks.

To access these sale items, and for more deals and products, you can click the button below!

Ranch News

We run our cows and calves together year round instead of weaning off the calves in the fall. Since adopting this model we have noticed better health and weight gains in our calves. In preparation for preg-checking we had to bring everyone into the corrals to sort off the expectant cows. Photo credit Rose Morris.

Sorting cows out of a herd is an art and a science as minuscule changes in body position can alter the outcome. Photo credit Rose Morris.

This is one of the few times our mama cows ever go through a chute, and it’s necessary to confirm that they’re carrying a calf, how far along they are into pregnancy, and that they’re healthy coming into calving season in May. The goal is always to work them smoothly and quickly, with as little stress as possible. Our awesome vet came out to do the checking, and he brought along his hydraulic squeeze chute. Ours is a little rusty and isn’t the best for smoothly handling big mama cows expecting calves in a few months. Photo credit Justice Mitchell.

We ran a few cows through our old chute before deciding that the fancy hydraulic one would be easier on everyone. Here’s one of the mama cows is in the head catch, which painlessly restrained her while we quickly checked her pregnancy status. We were sending a cow through in 1-2 minutes thanks to a great crew. The faster we worked the better. That way the cows didn’t get stressed out and could go right back to their calves from this year, which were waiting just outside the barn. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Justice has been hard at work cutting poles and building jacks to use for fencing. Photo credit Josh Whitling.

The process involves cutting the poles and jack pieces to the correct lengths, notching the two pieces that make a jack, and nailing them together. Photo credit Justice Mitchell.

The fruits of his labor are stacking up! Photo credit Justice Mitchell.

We’ve had several snowfalls recently followed by a cold snap. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga

While winter can feel interminable at times we are rejoicing over every new snowfall. Moisture is very precious in this high desert we call home, and every new inch of snowpack that layers the mountains around us means more water available next summer to nourish the land we and our animal charges depend on. Photo credit Rose Morris.

Your purchase supports our regenerative work. For more information go to https://www.alderspring.com/regenerative/.