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 and range!

Scroll down for this week’s story:

“On Those Happy Trails”

This Week’s Store Update & Coupons

NEXT SHIPPING DAY: Monday, September 9th

We will not be shipping orders Monday, September 2nd due to the Labor Day holiday.

What’s In Stock

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

This week’s coupon cuts

Use the code “WILDROAST” to get 10% off organic grass fed eye of round roasts.

Use the code “GROUNDROUND” to get 10% off organic grass fed extra lean ground round.

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

Special Mention:

Our restocked beef inventory sold very quickly this week. We have some beef still available, but make sure to also check out our lamb and pork options as there are a lot of nice cuts left!

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.

Photos from the last stint on the range this summer…

The crew of Chris, Webb, Justice, and Annie (photographed by fifth crew member Melanie) ponying the horses to a new camp. This camp, situated in what we call the “Aspen Draw”, was the last cow camp of the summer.

The smoke cleared for a couple days after a good rain, which meant an expansive view from the ridge between camp in the Aspen Draw and grazing in the Iron Mountain drainage. You could see all the way to the ranch!

The cattle enjoying diverse forage in the wake of the Rabbit Foot Fire of 2018. Six years later and the vegetation is some of the best on the range.

There are an unprecedented number of deer grazing the area, sometimes within a hundred yards of the cattle. They’re relatively unconcerned by riders on horseback.

The cattle bedded down for a late afternoon nap to chew their cud. It was a nice spot under some tall trees on the high ridge above camp in Aspen Draw.

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

Quote of the Week

“Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. We must constantly strive to do better, to be better stewards of the earth and all its inhabitants.”

– Unknown

This week’s story:

“On those Happy Trails”

Dear Friends,

Through the black of an Idaho mountain night, the Salmon River whispers to me as I write this. The cattle are finally off the high country, and Caryl and I set off from the ranch to take a much needed break.

We’re camping along the wild river just 10 miles from home. I can only hear (and feel) the presence of the liquid flow and tumble over ancient Rocky Mountain basement rubble, and the incessant love song of crickets. Border Collie Clyde stirs occasionally as he rests; Caryl and I don’t really do anything but read, catching up on text we simply didn’t have time for over the summer. But then we imbibe in our surroundings, breathing deeply of the thick and cooling airs of late summer in the canyon.

The murmuring flow of the Salmon extends down this canyon some 300 miles to the Snake, all unhindered by a dam. As a result, Pacific salmon and steelhead still migrate 900 miles as they have for centuries; some of the ‘whisper’ could very well be the fish that I speak of negotiating the riffles along our camp.

When I get quiet, I reflect in my mind’s eye of those who camped here before us. Ancients used this very campsite, I am certain, to gather their part of the oceanic bounty they literally discovered swimming by their camp. And like us, they followed well established travelways to get here.

Today, we call those conveyances roads.

Then, they were trails. And that’s what today’s story is about, and how the use of one particular trail irrevocably changed forever a culture of life with and on the land.

Happy Trails

Click here to read this week’s story: “On Those Happy Trails”

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.