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!
This Week’s Story: “When Horses Run Rogue”
Weekend flash deal: 10% off Kielbasa sausage and Extra Lean Ground Round
This Week’s Store Update & Coupons
NEXT SHIPPING DAY: Monday, January 22!
What’s In Stock
Beef was restocked earlier this week. We still have some inventory on many cuts, including…
- A few steaks (NY, filet, and ribeye all in)!
- Several other steaks still in stock!
- Some roast types still in
- Some sixteenths (bulk beef) are in stock!
- Salmon still in
- Cheese still in
This week’s coupon cuts
Weekend flash: Kielbasa sausage and Ground Round. We’ve also still got Flatirons on sale!
Click the button below to get access to the coupon.
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…
Glenn, photographed by Melanie, standing amid the herd last week. These are some of our mama cows along with their 8-month old calves. The calves are all healthy and larger than average for 8 months old, with nice thick hair coats. It’s what we like to see as weather gets colder!
Here’s Jed working earlier this week with Suzie (photo by Melanie). Suzie is a big four-year-old and is part draft horse, part quarter horse. She isn’t started yet and is still a little uncertain about humans. This week, Jed got a halter on her for the first time.
Mamas and their 8-month old calves watching Melanie with suspicion as she takes a few photos.
Here’s Annie also working with a horse this past week! Winter is a good time to get caught up on some of our horse training and get these horses ready to ride on the range by spring. Here, Annie is teaching the mare Maggie to lead and also to be comfortable with the leadrope being tossed over her back. Putting the leadrope over her back will help her get used to having something swung onto her back and will prepare her to be saddled for the first time.
Want to follow along more day-to-day? Find us on Instagram and Facebook.
Quote of the Week
“No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.”
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
This week’s story: “When Horse Runs Rogue”
Dear Friends
This story was written several years ago. Since then, we’ve lost the last of the draft horses mentioned in this story. These gentle giants aren’t a long-lived breed, though the ones we had all lived long lives for draft horses.
But we haven’t forgotten them or their big hearts. Here, Glenn reflects on lessons he learned years ago from our first set of drafts, Pet and Pat.
The horses have run ranch-rampant. But they’re on vacation at this time of year. They’ve put their time in on the range over the summer season. There, they worked off fat and built muscle mass from carry rider and camp gear over nearly a 1000 miles during the grazing tour. But that’s all over; shoes are off, and hair grown thick. We still use them to gather cattle on sort days and feed hay with the massive drafts.
The horse cavvy ranges over 100s of acres on the ranch. Sometimes, at night when the moon is bright like it was last night, I can hear the rustle and thump of horses running through deep snow. Was it a lion that they spotted? A wolf on the big meadows? Only they could tell. They can feed themselves though the white, so maybe they were just moving briskly off to new grass…
Continue reading the story on our blog by clicking below!
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.
You and your family are truly one of a kind. With so much integrity and care taken to ensure the highest quality is very uncommon. Praying all the best for each one of you.
Thank you so much, Mary!