Organic Beef Matters
News from Alderspring Ranch, with an occasional rant about American agriculture
The large lean-to tarp flapped in the cool night air and the Coleman lantern cast a warm orb over the cook tent. I eyed my crew as we sat quietly eating supper off the camp stove and grill. They were catatonic as they chewed dinner, and looking slightly stupefied. It was near midnight, and I've seen …
With the rain increasing in intensity, I gave my mare, Natalie, her head as she picked her way across the steep, slick and rocky mountainside, bent on catching 25 recalcitrant cattle that clambered high above us near the peak of the volcanic dome. They had cut from the main herd, in search of what …
The final sort is done, and now we are staged for the long walk to the mountain grasslands. We have 300 head in the low meadow; they've all been health screened, tag identified and weighed. We'll let them eat their fills for a few days, meeting early spring grazing objectives on our home Pahsimeroi …
The May sun was already down; it was going to be dark soon. We were running out of time. As Josh and I meandered and bounced the old pickup through the 200-acre hay meadow, our eyes scanned the verdant shag carpet of spring grass that was coming up with abandon. I was thankful it was early spring; …
On this May 12, treachery is about. I wake this morning with the first light of dawn, and I see the telltale signs that winter has attempted a coup while we rested. She crept back with her weakened forces and attempted insurgence on our valley under cloak of darkness: a solid line of demarcation …
Twelve thousand men were in serious trouble, despite the onset of spring in 1778. The Continental Army was already in dire straits after several brutalizing defeats through the autumn of 1777. Most lacked uniforms, and some walked barefoot, wrapping rags around their frozen feet. They were sorely in …
