Scroll down for Glenn’s weekly story and updates from the ranch this week!

this week: 10% off everything

Remember, only you newsletter readers have access to these discounts!

This is your LAST CHANCE to order before the 4th of July! Next shipping day is June 26th! Get your order in by Sunday the 18th at midnight to have it shipped the next day.

Also! We won’t be shipping during the 4th of July week because of the UPS holiday. June 26th is our last shipping day until July 10!

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

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This week on the ranch…

Come along virtually to see what we’ve been up to this past week on the ranch! We put this photo series in so that you can see exactly how & where we raise your beef.

Linnaea took this shot a few days ago of the herd of Alderspring beeves spread out over a hillside meadow on the range. Those of you who have followed us for a long time know that our beef cattle spend the summer on these mountain pastures, herded by a crew of riders who live up in cow camp with them and bring them to grass each day. Here, the crew has the cattle nicely set for an afternoon graze. The cattle instantly put their heads down, enjoying a diversity of native forage. They may have been too busy grazing to appreciate the view…but the riding crew certainly didn’t mind spending a few hours up here looking at those mountains!

Daughter Maddy is there in the foreground on her mare Ruby, with ranch hand Wesley on the left behind her and Glenn on the right. Daughter Maddy, 18, and Wesley, 19, are both “crew bosses” on the range this summer, responsible for leading the crew and guiding the cattle to good grass. Here, Glenn is riding with them for the afternoon, and they’re taking the opportunity to ask some questions and learn what they can from him. There’s a lot of nuance and complexity to working with animals and stewarding this landscape. Whether you’ve been riding out here for years like Glenn or are just beginning to scratch the surface, we never really stop learning from land and animals out here.

That’s range rider Brittany, back for her third summer of riding the range. She first came to us through our internship in 2021…and we’ve hired her back on for the past two years! Here Brittany is mounted on the sweet little mare Jimmie.

The crew is back in cow camp for the afternoon! During the heat of the day, we take the cattle down to get a drink at the stock tanks in camp. They lay down to chew the cud and nap, and we unsaddle and take a seat to have our own lunches. Here, Linnaea has a fresh package of Alderspring summer sausage to pass around to the crew!

The riding crew, Webb, Wesley, and Rachel, are pointing the herd back towards camp after an evening of grazing.

And it’s night time in cow camp. The herd is settled and sleeping, the horses are out grazing, and now as darkness falls the crew is making dinner in the cook tent.

Many people see the semi-desert landscape we herd cattle in and think it boring and brown. But we see a wild diversity and beauty out there…including a stunning display of wildflowers this year.

Want to follow along more day-to-day? Find us on Instagram and Facebook.

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Quote of the Week

“When I hear somebody talk about a horse or cow being stupid; I figure it’s a sure sign that the animal has somehow outfoxed them.”

-Tom Dorrance, True Unity: Willing Communication Between Horse & Human

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It was camp move day yesterday. All hands were on deck to gather up tents, tanks and materiel and move to Larkspur Springs, one mountain ridge away and about 10 miles by torturous straight up and down jeep trails. I can’t call them roads. There are places where sky is the only thing visible through the windshield because the track goes straight up a rocky ridge. Next, the truck windshield flashes by horizon for a brief minute and points straight at a canyon bottom, no sky in sight. 

Then, the trail will take the look of a tunnel through seemingly impenetrable brush and trees along a beaver swamped creek bottom. Then, back up into high desert. 

It’s the beavers that got my attention. They’ve been busy this spring. I’m spotting new water impoundments along creeks in new places I’ve not yet seen them taking up residence. It’s not yet a beaver storm, but I’m hoping it will be. 

It’s because they are the game changers in the American Outback. They deliver habitat on steroids, capture carbon, re-establish fish, sage-grouse and songbirds. They are known to ecologists as a keystone species because they can singlehandedly create what is known as a “trophic cascade” of life forms that segway on to the reservoirs, saturated soils and coppice farming of clonal woody species like aspen and willow. 

In essence, they deliver an explosion of life. 

And they teach us. This week’s newsletter is about just that, and one of many lessons we have learned from none other than a long-toothed rodent.

Happy Trails.

Glenn

Read the story on our blog by clicking below!

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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.

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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.

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