Dear Friends and Partners,

Welcome to Alderspring’s weekend edition newsletter! Thank you for partnering in what we do!

Below you can find beef discounts, Glenn’s weekly story, and lots of photos from the ranch this week!

Scroll down for this week’s story:

“When Cows Climb Cars”

This Week’s Store Update & Coupons

NEXT SHIPPING DAY: Monday, August 26th

The 26th will be our last day to ship orders before we are closed for the week of Labor Day!

What’s In Stock

Beef was restocked earlier this week. Unfortunately, many cuts have already sold out, but we still have:

Chorizo, kielbasa, garlic, bratwurst, and hot Italian beef sausage
Extra lean ground round
Organic beef bones
Beef sticks
Pork chops
Pork shoulder roast
Pork breakfast sausage
Pork Italian sausage
Pork spare ribs
Lamb baby back ribs
Leg of lamb
Lamb bones
Salmon
Cheese

This week’s coupon cuts

Use the code “SOCKEYE” to get 10% off wild Alaskan sockeye salmon.

Use the code “BEEFSAUSAGE” to get 10% off chorizo, hot Italian, kielbasa, bratwurst, and garlic sausage.

Click the green button below or the green words above to access these cuts!

Special Mention:

We have Ribeye Nation and the Steak of New York in stock! For more specific details see the photos below. These specialty steaks are all fresh off the range. That means that the wellness and flavor gained from the wide diversity of forbs and grasses (and the plethora of nutritionally beneficial compounds they contain) that these beeves have been grazing on all summer are present in these cuts and ready to be passed on to you the eater. All of our beef sausage and snack sticks currently for sale also come from beeves fresh off the range.

Our beef sausage is not made from junk beef like so much conventional sausage is. Instead it is made from young, premium beef. We actually take part of our good grind and devote it to our sausage. We believe you can taste the difference.

Get this week’s cuts + more here!

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

The Ribeye Nation is the largest certified organic grass fed ribeye steak in the world (or at least the largest we’ve ever been able to find). We hand-select these steaks for the best of the best in flavor, marbling, and tenderness. This set of steaks only comes by once every year or so, because only one steer makes this level out of the several hundred we sell each year.

The Steak of New York are the largest and thickest steaks we offer in the world of NY strip, with the very best marbling. In fact, these are some of the largest certified organic grass fed NY strips to be found online (we couldn’t find any others!)

Photos from the Ranch This Week…

Dutch oven enchiladas in cow camp hit the spot after a long day herding! Photo by Justice Mitchell.

That’s a lot of people up on the range! We were so excited to have a group of outstanding researchers from Colorado State University join us in cow camp for a few days this summer! Every individual in this photo brought impressive expertise in their area of study. We were excited that Temple Grandin (center), who revolutionized livestock handling practices, joined us as well (she had never been camping until this summer with us). Despite her 76 years of age, she was quite happy roughing it for a few days and interacting with all members of the crew. Photo by Justice Mitchell.

The group from Colorado State came because they’re interested in methods to improve how we manage livestock in the vast country of the American West. Dr. Grandin was interested in how we handle the cattle on the range using low-stress practices. We were admittedly nervous herding the cattle in front of her knowing eyes–nothing like having an internationally known livestock handling expert watching your every move! Photo by Justice Mitchell.

At the end of our few days on the range together we had a really productive conversation about solutions for livestock management on the western rangeland. Photo by Justice Mitchell.

A curious racoon spotted while fishing. Photo by Justice Mitchell.

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

Quote of the Week

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”

– Henry Miller

This week’s story:

“When cows climb cars”

Dear Friends

This week, the mid-afternoon 90 degree sun was beating down hard on Bret, my carpenter friend, and me as we grunted and slid 17 foot strips of corrugated steel sections across our newly built back porch roof. After climbing up the vertical 22 feet ladder to the eaves and then walking the steep and slick pitch of the roof, I was beginning to feel a bit dizzy in the heat. I looked at Bret as sweat rolled down his nose.

“I’m not sure two sixty-something guys need to be up here anymore on a day like this, pardner. I think I’ll go back to ranching.”

“Me neither. Let’s get this thing buttoned down a little and we’ll call it a day.”

Bret has done his share of nearly everything. He’s ranched, rode bucking bulls, roofed, built what must be a hundred houses, and even was a scrapper for awhile when Chinese metal demand skyrocketed.

“Did you ever make a dime on that scrap?”

“Yeah, we made lotsa money. We hauled tons and tons of junk farm equipment from outta all over the Montana outback,” Bret replied. He grinned at the memory.

“Well, I’m pretty dang sure you missed the mother lode. Melanie and I traded some cattle years back with a gent almost up in Canada. You might have spent the rest of your life hauling his iron out of there.”

“Oh yeah? “, says Bret, now obviously intrigued. “Tell me more.”

And I did. Read on, friends for a tale from Montana’s vast outback.

Happy Trails

Click here to read this week’s story: “When Cows Climb Cars”

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.

Why is Inventory Low Lately?

Here’s where we’re at on the “low inventory” situation…and why it’s low in the first place! We know many of you have been with us for a long time and rely on us as your source of protein (and we’re so grateful)!

In the last few months, we’ve been hit by a lot of unexpected demand.

When it comes to raising beef, changes in demand can be very difficult to respond to quickly. It takes us 2-3 years to raise an animal to finish. That means we plan our inventory needs about 2 years in advance.

Many companies and producers we know of that sell direct-to-consumer respond to sudden increases in demand by buying outside cattle (often at sale barn auctions) and then selling that beef under their label. This is VERY common.

But this kind of “cow flipping” isn’t something we’re willing to do.

We know the entire history of every beef we sell. That’s important to us, and we know it’s important to you and part of why you trust us to raise your beef.

We’re working right now to gradually increase our available inventory to hopefully provide more beef! But at a certain point, we actually can’t expand further without compromising our standards.

We know that the reason many of you order from us is because we’re small scale. We butcher our cattle at a small processor that only does about 80 head of cattle per week (compared to thousands at a big facility). This also limits our capacity to expand, because they, too, are functioning at capacity right now. We also raise only as many cattle as our pastures can support without degrading our soils. And we’re still small enough that Glenn personally looks at every single steak before he puts it in your box to ship to you. These factors are why you order from us! But it also means occasional inventory limitations.