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.

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Next shipping day is April 4, 2022!

Place your order by Sunday at midnight on the 3rd to get it shipped on the 4th.

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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 10% off on the following: The Roast and Ground Pack, Lifeline Organic Butter!, Pork Sausage, and Leaner Ribeye Steaks!

Also, a weekend flash deal ON THE 3F STEAK SPECIAL…ONE OF OUR MOST POPULAR PACKAGES!

This photo looks like 4 random people wandering aimlessly in a field, right? In reality, it’s Caryl, Caitlin, Glenn, and Jeremiah out soil sampling! Jeremiah there is up front following a GPS map on his phone to a randomly generated sample point. There, they’ll dig up some dirt as part of a sample we’re sending to a lab to test.

So why spend an afternoon out here digging up soil samples? Well, this field is part of a ranch we just started leasing last summer. There are about 2-3 grass species here (Alderspring home ranch pastures average around 80), and when you look at the soil, you can already tell that it’s not going to be testing high on organic matter. We’re doing the soil test so that we know the baseline number that we’re starting from. After a few years of practicing regenerative methods on these pastures, we’ll test again.

One of the soil balls Glenn and Jeremiah dug up for the sample. You can see here that there’s very little organic matter or root systems holding the soil together. It’s dust, already crumbling even though we removed it very carefully. An actual soil test from a lab is going to tell us exactly where the organic matter is at in this soil. And even though the numbers will be low, that’s not depressing to us–it only shows that we have nowhere to go but up!

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Quote of the Week

“Soil erosion is as old as agriculture. It began when the first heavy rain struck the first furrow turned by a crude implement of tillage in the hands of prehistoric man. It has been going on ever since, wherever man’s culture of the earth has bared the soil to rain and wind.”

— Hugh H. Bennett and W.C. Lowdermilk, circa 1930s

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This story is one Glenn wrote several years ago (with spring work hitting us hard this week, Glenn didn’t have time to write his weekly newsletter). As we head into another season on the range, however, this story is a great reminder of the “why” behind what we do up there.

The winds of change are blowing over Alderspring. Snow is finally starting to recede again after last week’s storm left the hills white. Winter is tenacious in our high mountain valley, but spring breezes blow in heat that fans the flame of green across the landscape. The meadows are littered with color as the spring wildflower exuberance settles on both our valley ranch and the wild ranges above, as if driving winter away with riotous color. As I wander through the Salmon River Breaks, I am in awe of the floral displays on the mountain rangelands. I like to think it’s so exceptional because of the mineral density of our volcanic soils that typify our country.

And volcanic it was. We are in the middle the Challis Volcanic region, a geologic region covering an area the size of Connecticut that is characterized by deep volcanic ash deposits that filled canyons with up to 1000 feet of ash. The material all came from one very productive and violently erupting source: the Twin Peaks Caldera, marked by an imploded crater 25 miles southwest of Alderspring and flanked by two 10,000 foot snowcapped peaks of the same name. The result of the eruptions was total devastation. Any life that may have existed here was completely wiped out…

Read the rest on our blog by clicking below!

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This Week’s FEatured Cuts From Alderspring’s Wild Pastures

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That’s Emily, 4th of the 7 sisters, climbing up a rock face near the ranch this week. You don’t see much of Emily on our website or social media because she’s actually off in college most of the time, studying physics and computer science!

And that’s Maddy, youngest of the sisters, looking the horses over after finishing up some evening ranch chores a few days ago. The light-colored horse in the background there is Merry, one of the 8 feral horses the girls have been training this spring.

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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.