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 days are August 15 and 16, 2022!

Place your order by Sunday at midnight on the 14th to get your order shipped out next week!

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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 15% off on butter, big ribeyes, fatty ground and some pork cuts! Plus a this weekend only flash sale at 10% off on our 2 most popular packs (the 3F and the 3F Steak Special).

In addition, we just posted some 16ths–called the “grassfed” 16ths that are discounted 20 to 25% off a la carte prices.

This week on the ranch…

That’s Maddy (nicknamed Maddog by the crew) and the mare Sunny ready for a day on the range. Maddy is the youngest of the 7 Elzinga sisters.

This past week we’ve had some massive thunderheads drift through. They bring much needed rain to the ranges, and unfortunately, abundant lightning. Often, even in the middle of the day, I’ll note several simultaneous strikes on Alderspring’s summer grass ranges visible from headquarters. The good news is that in our county right now, we have over 1500 wildland fire personnel on duty due to the 75,000 acre Moose Fire, near Salmon, Idaho, just over an hour away. Thankfully, they can get right on starts as they ignite.

And there’s Annie, 6th of the daughters, with her dog Ginny. The cattle all lay down each afternoon to chew the cud. That’s a chance for us to sit down for lunch break…even if it’s raining! Luckily, Annie doesn’t mind a little rain!

Yep. That’s kale. And about 13 other soil regenerating species. Glenn shot this pic on the Fisher Ranch yesterday, while perusing the success of a new certified organic seeding we’ve been partnering with the Fisher family on to regenerate soils on their ranch. Alderspring cattle will eventually be grazing the plethora of plants here, stomping part of them into the dirt–thus dramatically increasing soil life–and biodiversity. That, in turn will yield productivity and wellness to our beeves when the come off the range.

The greenery is good in the high country. Glenn grabbed this shot of the beeves coming out of Iron Mountain Camp where they almost disappeared in the deep meadow and sage of the timber margin. George, the quarter horse gelding, is lapping up the diversity as well!

That’s Maddy in the late evening approaching cow camp with the high Lemhi Mountain Range beyond. The forest fire smoke makes for interesting colors in the sunset skies.

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Linnaea (R) and Britany aren’t members of the ladies sewing circle. Here, they are brushing the tiny burrs out of their cinch wraps. We pad our cinchas with wool pile sleeves that we can remove and clean regularly. Every day, we pick and clean these, along with the wool saddle pads that cover horses’ backs. Not removing dirt, mud and debris is a certain way to sore a horse, and a cowhand without a horse is looking at walking a 20 to 30 mile day in rough country.

Linnaea is smiling because Toby is doing so very well. It’s a redemption story. He was bucking people off in the early part of the summer, and we were wondering if he would ever work out. When we brought him to our vet for an eye that would not stop weeping, Dr. Jeff detected that there was some pressure behind his eyeball. So he literally started carefully digging around in the eye socket behind the eye, and found a giant fat deposit almost the size of the eyeball, which he quickly yanked out, likely from an old injury. Toby appeared immediately relieved, and ever since then, is a changed young horse!

Looking down to the ground from horseback, we often see these. That rock is over 2 feet long, and quite heavy. The ground underneath is just barely dry, but licked completely clean of ants, worms, centipedes, sowbugs and whatever else could have lived there. Anteater? Yes. By definition, and not by name. Bear by name, an opportunistic omnivore, and probably watching me at this very moment I captured this pic.

We like to call the tall yellow flowers goldenrods, but they are not officially so. Goldens are in the genus Solidago. These are Senecios. Either way, cows, absolutely love them (they know what they are). But you’ll notice, if you look carefully, the 450 head of beeves went around the golden flower stand and up the mountain to the upper right of the photo.

The answer to why is just over border collie Clyde’s head. It’s a temporary hotwire, or poly wire that isn’t even hot, but the beeves are trained to. We often use this quick solution to keep them out of sensitive habitats and creeks. Senecio attracts huge amounts of insect populations and hundreds of native bees (really, native–not honeybees), so we try to keep our cattle completely out of such areas.

Quote of the Week

“August of another summer, and once again I am drinking the sun and the lilies again are spread across the water.”

–Mary Oliver

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This story is one Glenn wrote right around this time 2 years ago. The reason he didn’t have time to write this week is because of the same event that occurs in this story: our annual organic inspection. Glenn will be spending the next week going through and organizing paperwork in preparation, and then 3 days of time with the inspector.

It’s an arduous and time-consuming process that we go through every year. And you, reader, may ask why?

Read on for the answer!

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Gwen desired an in-depth tour of the 70 square mile piece of Idaho wilderness to see where our cattle grazed this past summer; she wanted to ensure that it was still 100% certifiable as organic. There are a few old two track gravel roads that journey up and through the rugged mountains and forests that comprise it, kept from overgrowing by our occasional passage with horse trailers and pickup trucks. We picked one, and started the climb up out of the Salmon River Canyon.

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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Sometimes these summer days can be pretty long ones that end long after dark. Luckily, we’ve got a crew that’s still smiling at the end of it!

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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.