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: “Thanksgiving Card”
Weekend flash deal: 15% off Korean Style Short Ribs! Plus 10% off Top Sirloins and Oxtails
This Week’s Store Update & Coupons
NEXT SHIPPING DAY: Monday, Nov 27!
We ARE shipping this coming Monday!
What’s In Stock
Beef was restocked earlier this week and we still have good quantities on most cuts. Also back:
- Special Holiday Roasts just in time for Christmas dinner!
- Bulk bundles restocked
- Salmon back!
- Lamb still in
This week’s coupon cuts
This week you can capture 10% off on leaner new york steaks, plus a weekend flash deal for 10% off lamb baby back ribs (we almost never put lamb on sale)!
If you have any questions, observations, or comments, just send Kelsey an email at help[at]alderspring[dot]com.
A Note on Inventory
We wanted to explain in a little more detail here what’s going on with the low inventory lately. 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)!
Lately, we’ve been hit with an unexpected wave of 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. We know of many producers who respond to sudden increases in demand by simply buying outside cattle and butchering those cattle under their label (this was especially common during the sudden demand hit during covid). This kind of “cow flipping” goes against our standards and isn’t something we’re willing to do.
With that said, we can’t make dramatic increases but we do have the ability to slightly increase our inventory within the next few weeks here. We’re hoping this resolves some of the problems you all are having with getting your meats!
The reason many of you prefer to buy 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), and we raise only as many cattle as our pastures can support without degrading soils. We carefully curate every single steak. Our small size means we can pay attention to detail. But it also means occasional inventory limitations!
Recent Photos From the ranch…
In the more muted light of fall, we rarely see full rainbows like this at this time of year, but Melanie managed to capture this one on camera a few days ago. Her border collie Buster is looking on, though he may be more interested in evidence of birds and field mice than the rainbow above.
Here the beeves are quite content on fall pastures. Though the top grass has turned down, you can see plenty of green still around their feet. This is actually still some of our best grass of the year, matured with sugars from a summer of growing. The cattle certainly seem quite content on it!
At this time of year, we let the beeves graze the grass further down than we do in the summer. We aren’t worried about leaving enough plant material to grow back (though we do want to leave a nice layer over the soil as we head into winter). So we let the herd spread out and graze and manage grazing less intensively. We know they’re getting plenty to eat and are content when they have heads down and aren’t too interested when we head out into the pasture to check. If they were hungry, they’d be crowded around, bawling for a move to better grass. But here they have little interest in Melanie taking the photo (besides a few curious stares).
The old ones: Sable, Ginger, and April. Every one of them is pushing twenty (April, the mare with the blaze, is older. We don’t know how old, but we estimate around twenty-five). These are some of the old horses we have who were loyal partners for years on the range and carried many a rider over steep and rugged terrain. They have a home with us for the remainder of their lives. All three are a little stiff with arthritis now (inevitable in horses this old). Sable and Ginger can no longer carry a rider, but April is still up for the occasional pony ride with the grandkids. All of them still move around well enough that they aren’t suffering, and we can tell by their good condition and thick coats that they are heading into winter in good health! Melanie checks on them every day…they are old friends.
Want to follow along more day-to-day? Find us on Instagram and Facebook.
Quote of the Week
It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
-Robert Louis Stevenson
This week’s story: “Hooves in a Hard Spot”
This is a story by daughter Melanie that she shared on our Instagram this week. It’s about Jimmie, the mare in the photo above, and an accident that occurred on the range this summer.
We carry firearms on the range for a few reasons, but one of the most important is a situation where an animal has been severely injured to the point where treatment would be futile, and subjection to further suffering would be inhumane.
My heart pounded and I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. This couldn’t be the first time the story ended like this, I thought.
It was early September, and we had just trailed the cattle down from subalpine meadows in the Middle Fork of Hat Creek to the edge of low sagebrush country. We were bringing them home, and this was the first leg of the journey. We set up a makeshift one-night cow camp there on the banks of Big Hat Creek, right alongside the jack fence border of an exclosure put in years ago to protect the riparian area.
I was nervous about the horses as night approached. Roxy and Jolene mostly. If the string somehow got out in the night, those two wise old mares would decisively take the road home off the range and lead the rest along. They knew the way, even with no moon. The problem with the way home was that there was a short but necessary stint on the highway. The scenario of an unsuspecting motorist connecting with a dark colored horse during the night was terrifying to even consider. So, I decided to put the electric fence horse pen inside the exclosure, situated between the hard fence and the creek….
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.
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.
My family is grateful for all you do and we will be loyal customers for life (even though our orders aren’t too large).
The quality and care that comes from Alderspring raised beef is unmatched. I feel proud to tell the story of your ranching practices to others who join us for meals that include Alderspring beef. Thank you for offering these options to us in Minnesota, we sure are glad we found you 10 years ago.