Dear Friends and Partners,
Welcome to Alderspring’s weekend edition newsletter!
In this letter is Glenn’s weekly story, a suite of pics about work on the ranch this week, what’s happening in our freezer, and a recipe to cook!
Want to follow along more day-to-day? Find us on Instagram and Facebook.
And, as always, if you have any questions, observations, or comments, just shoot us an email to Kelsey at help[at]alderspring[dot]com.
Next shipping day is Nov 8!
Place your order by Sunday at midnight to get it shipped out on Monday!
Looking for this week’s featured cuts? Head to the page below. Scroll on down for Glenn’s story and other newsletter stuff!
This week’s cuts include Ground Chuck, Regular ground beef, Kabobs and Wild Hunter pet provisions! Also, lamb inventory is in pretty good shape!
This Week on the Ranch
This week, 4 of us took a little break to attend the Farm Credit Services national Fly-In to Washington DC. There, about 550 members of the Farm Credit Co-op organization comprised of ranchers, farmers and customer service representatives from FC offices showed up to visit with their various members of Congress to discuss the major issues of the day.
Issues like climate change. The labor shortage. How to recover endangered salmon and steelhead to their historic levels before dams. And so, Farm Credit provided an on-the-ground voice to these issues which many congressionals enjoy, but rarely have time see on the ground.
So, we visited them, bringing the farm and ranch to them.
And Farm Credit was the perfect organization to do it with. You see, they’re a lending institution that is also a Co-op. And that means that we, the producers, own them. We’re owners and stockholders, and as such, FC is all about our success. Part of being a member is unlimited access to free training seminars about how to succeed in ag. Financial trainings about how to create analysis to determine and facilitate business success. They offer very low interest competitive loans for both ownership and working capital, and were willing to work with us 28 years ago when nearly every other bank turned us away. I’m not sure we would have made it on Alderspring without their support. We are so grateful for their partnership in the ranch!
What did we do in DC? We visited with lawmakers, toured famous (The Mall!) and obscure landmarks (the kitchen of George Washington at Mount Vernon). Everything sort of tied together, from the stories about early agricultural commerce we heard in 1700s Alexandria, VA, while walking the streets paved with cobblestone hand laid by Hessian soldiers, to seeing great works of 19th century art capturing images of the then virtually unknown West (and now our current home). We came home with a wider perspective, and more than a little hope about the people that represent us in DC. There are indeed great people there, and many of them are truly trying. -Glenn
Quote of the Week
“Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man.”
―George Washington, First President of the United States of America.
On that bison belch
There’s a lot of media attention directed at the climate crisis as caused by cow; methane, emitted by a bovine belch, is responsible, largely for the alteration of our climate. And, as they say in conferences in places like Glasgow, without cow expurging its gaseous effluent, the low ground of the likes of Manhattan may be spared ultimate inundation by an encroaching Oceano Atlantico.
There’s only one flaw with such criminalization of cow: science is showing that there were likely many more on the planet prehistorically. Glenn’s story, penned six years ago, is even more relevant today. If you ever wonder what America looked like before we came along, read on…
Learning the Lessons from the buffalo
It’s been a lovely fall so far with no hard frosts yet, only regular light ones. What that means is beautiful aspen gold fall foliage and lush, green grass. Cool days and nights also stimulate a seemingly insatiable appetite in the beeves. They seem never have their heads up, except when True the Border Collie boldly comes through to inspect the herd. She holds her ground, and refuses the Border Collie urge to circle and bring them…unless if asked by me. She was a complete nutburger as a pup, but now shows the true colors of black and white as a middle aged matron, anticipating and eagerly awaiting a subtle nod from me.
I won’t give it to her, and she stands immovable as a good dog should, even as the herd of 1200 pound steers surround her. They soon envelop her with curiosity, snuffing and edging ever closer- a bit unnerving for even a border collie. (continued in the link below…)
Featured Weekly Cuts
A quick summary of this week’s deals
(As always, only you newsletter readers have access to these discounts)
This week you can get 10% off on both the following cuts:
- Ground Chuck and Regular Ground! Stock up for winter!
- Sirloin Tip Kabobs: (lovely in stews or fajitas)
- The Wild Hunter (phytochemical richness for your canine, kitty or you!)
Also note: Lamb is in pretty good stock, and 3Fs are back!
And then…THE HOLIDAY SCHEDULE!
If you’re thinking of giving Alderspring as a gift this year or just want to know when those shipping days will be over the next two months so you can get your beef when you need it, here are the details!
First, we won’t be shipping on the Monday before both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Second, we will be switching to 2nd day air only starting after Thanksgiving and until the 1st of the year to compensate for heavy holiday parcel traffic during the holidays.
Both of these cool ideas are insurance/assurances that you’ll get your Alderspring wild protein order in good shape–frozen, and not lost on some UPS trailer abandoned along the tarmac at the likes of DFW or LAX.
Remember, our inventories are VERY dynamic! Our goal is to turn it over 2 times a month to offer you the very freshest product right off of Alderspring’s pastures.
Weekly Happenings: Photos from the Ranch and wanderings in the strange and distant lands of Washington DC
We spent great week visiting the DC Capital City, but all of us found ourselves missing the mountains.
Here’s Glenn, Linnaea, Annie and Becky in their full dress regalia expected in the halls of Congress (that tie…). This was right after our visits with members of the House of Representatives. Glenn even got the ear of Rep. David Scott, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. It appeared to be an ear-opener on the climate discussions when Glenn related that for every pound of Alderspring beef we produce, about 4 pounds of carbon get sequestered into the ground!
It’s Annie, standing on the edge of the Tidal Basin at the foot of the Jefferson Memorial. The 3 daughters and Glenn took a motorized scooter tour to most of the lit-up National monuments after a day of non-stop meetings and dinners (and for the daughters, up to four changes of clothes per day, depending on the event). To say the least, we were all exhausted as we only had 5 hours to catch up on sleep each night.
George and Martha Washington’s kitchen was amazingly like our cow-camp cook shack over the summer. Dutch ovens, open fires, lots of smoke and big pots of coffee. The girls and Glenn could be comfortable here!
Glenn was hoping to find this painting, and was so excited when he located it in the National Gallery. It’s Albert Bierstadt’s Mount Corcoran. The three Maskateers were impressed as well! For the first time, they saw firsthand works by Degas, Monet, and Seurat, but it seems they were most taken by Bierstadt, as he could truly capture in oil and canvas not just the scene, but the feel and magnificence of the West.
This 20 foot wide FDR quote was particularly poignant to the crew, especially since “help wanted” signs were everywhere, and yet, even close to the mall, homeless and unemployed folks have appeared to have occupied parts of the city. Covid has completely rewritten our culture, unfortunately, and it’s not an easy issue to tackle. Speaking to legislators, it was very clear that these social problems are on the top of their dockets!
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.
Your partnership in Alderspring helps us maintain what is unique in today’s agricultural world; Alderspring is a Carbon NEGATIVE and Climate POSITIVE operation. We ran the numbers, and our cows help us capture more carbon in the ground each year on our irrigated pastures than we release!
Returning from the land of the Metro, Uber, Bus, Jet, Spin Scooter and Taxi can get pretty easy when the backyard looks like this. We’re grateful. We’ll happily take our own two feet or the four of a solid horse for transportation.
Thank you!!! That was so interesting. I love reading your emails about your family and the ranch! Makes me want to be 40 yrs younger, have a few horses, and a mountain! God bless you and your family. Be safe and well.