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:
“From Spooks and Goblins to Sky Islands”
We also have new quarter beeves available straight off the range!
This Week’s Store Update & Coupons
NEXT SHIPPING DAY: Monday, August 12th
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 “SIRLOINCHUCK” to get 10% off top sirloin steaks.
Use the code “LEANERNY” to get 10% off leaner New York steaks.
Use the code “SIXTEENTH” to get 5% off the #2: grass fed (not certified organic) sixteenth with shoulder tender, flat iron, and sirloin steaks.
Click the green button below or the green words above to access these cuts!
Special Mention:
We have two new quarter beeves available! These beeves were raised entirely by us and have spent two summers grazing on our remote range in some of the most botanically diverse wild grassland ecosystems in the world. What that passes on to you the eater is extraordinary flavor and wellness all in one package. These two beeves could not be listed as organic because their moms were on non-organic ground while they were in utero. Buying quarter beef provides up to a 50% off savings from our a la carte cuts! Access the new quarters by clicking HERE, and then click on the individual quarter beef listings. You will find a paragraph detailing each beeves specific history on the individual listings.
If you have any questions, observations, or comments, just send Kelsey an email at help[at]alderspring[dot]com.
Photos from the Ranch This Week…
Aysha is from Northern California and spent three weeks with us to gain more experience about implementing regenerative practices on her own cattle ranch back home! She is pictured here on Reba, who has a lot of grit and also a lot of opinions! But Aysha has been riding much of her life and got along great with the sometimes cantankerous mare.
Cass interned with us the first half of last year’s grazing season with the goal of learning more regenerative cattle and land management practices. She was able to make it back for a few weeks to help out and learn some more this summer! With 2024 interns ending their time on the range (the three-week interns all headed out last week), it’s awesome to have Cass back to help out as crew members are fewer and the country gets tougher. The crew she was on in 2023 was too early to graze the timber (the cattle are on low sagebrush steppe for the first half of the summer), so this is her first time herding cattle in the trees. Hopefully she comes away with some more tools in her toolbox from her time spent on the range this year!
Alice is from Utah and spent three weeks with us the second half of this summer. She brought a lot of ecological knowledge into the internship, and was hoping to gain more hands on experience and insight into the practice of Inherding. It was great to have her on the crew and to hear her perspective!
Despite very dry conditions the last month and a half, the cattle are still thriving thanks to plentiful water, green forage, and shade to be found in the timber.
Back at the home ranch one of our daily tasks is irrigation. Whether it involves running or fixing pivots or wheel lines, moving hand line, or setting dams for flood irrigation, water is incredibly precious in our high desert environment. We do our best to utilize every drop that is available. Here Emily is unclogging one of the nozzles on the pivot to make sure the water is dispersed evenly and no dry patches are created in the field.
Want to follow along more day-to-day? Find us on Instagram and Facebook.
Quote of the Week
“Regenerative agriculture implies more than just sustaining something but rather an active rebuilding or regeneration of existing systems towards full health.”
– Charles Massy
This week’s story:
“From Spooks and Goblins to Sky Islands”
Dear Friends.
I was horseback the other day in the high wilds of the Hat Creek Country, and while looking past the backs of hundreds of shimmering black cattle hides spread out over the ridges below, my eye stopped and rested on a curious rock formation in the South Gulch country to the north, in part obscured by the smoky wildfire haze.
And, surprisingly, these strange words slipped into my under-the-breath murmuring mouth from deeply recessed rolodexes in the pack-rat midden of my mind:
Spooks and goblins.
And my lips bent into a slow smile as I almost almost shed a teary eye as a flood of memories began to pour back.
I’d like to share those memories with you dear reader, so read on if you’d like to learn more about spooks and goblins, deals with the Devil, and the Dutchman’s Castles.
Happy trails to you all.
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.
Your partnership with alderspring directly supports our mission to improve soil health, wildlife habitat, and animal and human wellness through regenerative ranching practices.
Here’s what we’ve accomplished with your help & support in just the last 12 years!
More information about our regenerative practices and outcomes can be found at the button below.
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