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

And, as always, if you have any questions, observations, or comments, just shoot us an email to Kelsey at help[at]alderspring[dot]com.

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Next shipping day is Feb 21, 2022!

Place your order by Sunday at midnight on the 20th to get it shipped on the 21st!

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Looking for this week’s featured cuts? Head to the page below. Scroll on down for Glenn’s story and other newsletter stuff!

This week’s cuts include some of that beautiful organic pastured butter, as well as a deal on our pork chops and pastured pork sausage. And an extra discount on 3Fs (they’re already discounted off our a la carte rates, so this coupon gives you a double discount).

Also last week we added some discounted intro “sampler packages,” back by popular demand for those who want to try an introductory sampling of Alderspring in a grab-and-go package! You can also find those on the page below.

Those are 8 (one of them was a bit camera shy and didn’t make the shot) new equine arrivals to the ranch as of this week. They are young 3 and 4-year-olds. Many of them actually grew up feral on the range in the very mountain country we run our cattle on. “Feral” doesn’t mean “wild mustangs.” These are from a herd of escaped domestic horses (mostly quarter horses, with a little bit of draft blood that you can see in the bone structure and hooves of these). This herd ran out on the ranges for several years until a few of our neighbors rounded them up last fall. And now, we purchased them and brought them to Alderspring. Most of these have barely been handled by humans.

Over the next few weeks, the girls will be getting them ready to ride on the range. Come summer, they’ll be back in nearly the same country they grew up in, this time with riders. And by fall, they will be our partners, rock-solid and dependable. The transformation of a green horse into a steady and unflappable mount is one we’ve seen many times out in that country.

And though they will take some time and effort to train this spring, we’re excited about the raw materials they bring. Since they grew up on the range, they already know how to “watch their feet.” This means they’ll have awareness in rocks, steep terrain, swamps, and thick timber. Placing those hooves with care is something that actually takes time for a horse to learn, and we’ve had both horses and riders get in dangerous situations because a horse didn’t know how to handle itself in rough country. These horses have that foundation, at least, and we have hope that once we get them with us, they’ll take good care of the riders on their backs.

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Quote of the Week

“Whenever the soil is rich, the people flourish, physically and economically. Whenever the soil is wasted, the people are wasted. A poor soil produces only a poor people.”

―George Washington Carver

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My eyes notice them, but my mind does not. It’s a subtle peppering of dots, blending into the natural mosaic of grassland and sage on a distant ridge. I’d see it, register it, but the conscious level of my brain would dismiss it as rocks or a sporadically placed stand of antelope bitterbrush.

But then, the nagging sense of subconscious perception kicks in, and says that I need to take another look. Without thinking about it, reflexively, my torso turns in the saddle, eyes squinting into the sunlight toward that mountain ridge while on a light trot to deal with the fully conscious object at hand: I have to flank off the herd of 450 head of recalcitrant yearling cattle in my care before they vanish into the dark and down Douglas-fir forest thickets that lead down to Skull Flats.

Fact is, with the sun, the trot and all, I can’t focus on those dots—so I bring my mare around into a stop. “Hoyoung!”, I yell. “Hey!”

….Read the rest below!

In the distance there you can see the Alderspring herd. They are spread out along the line of hay we fed yesterday out on the pasture. This time of year, they are free to roam across this entire pasture. Over the course of the winter, we’ll feed hay in a different spot each day until we’ve covered all of this ground. And where we’ve fed, the leftover hay and manure will in turn feed the soil.

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Featured Weekly Cuts

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It’s not all work and no play around here! Here are Annie and Maddy, the two youngest daughters, out shredding some beautiful snow at the nearby ski area yesterday! It was a simply beautiful day out there, with that fresh coat of snow, sunshine, and those hundred-mile views. While we spend much of the summer in the backcountry on a horse, skiing is our way to still get out there all winter.

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And here’s Annie again, this time fixing a gate. We have a big red bull who isn’t a huge believer in boundaries such as gates. He decided to literally bull through this one and pull it off its hinges. We straighened out the dents he put in it and then screwed the hinges back in so it swung smoothly again.

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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 in Alderspring helps us maintain what is unique in today’s agricultural world; Alderspring is a Carbon NEGATIVE and Climate POSITIVE operation. For every one pound of Alderspring beef, we put a NET of eight pounds of CO2 equivalents into the soil. We’ve done the numbers & had them vetted by soils & carbon experts.