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!
Scroll down for this week’s story:
“Under the Lights of Mid-Night”
This Week’s Store Update & Coupons
NEXT SHIPPING DAY: Monday, October 14th
What’s In Stock
Beef was restocked earlier this week. Unfortunately, many cuts have already sold out, but we still have:
- Sixteenths
- Quarter beef
- Wild hunter
- New York steak
- Leaner New York steak
- Leaner ribeye steak
- Beef garlic sausage
- Beef chorizo sausage
- Beef hot Italian sausage
- Sliced beef summer sandwich meat
- Organic beef bones
- Beef bones
- Beef tongue
- Pastured pork smoked ham
- Pastured pork chops
- Pastured ground pork
- Pastured pork breakfast sausage
- Pastured pork Italian sausage
- Pastured pork bacon
- Pastured pork smoked ham hock
- Pastured pork shoulder roast
- Pastured pork spare ribs
- Pastured pork liver
- Pastured pork kidney
- Pastured pork heart
- Lamb German rosemary sausage
- Lamb loin chops
- Rack of lamb
- Lamb bones
- Lamb baby back ribs
- Raw milk sheep cheese Pecorino Idaho
- Raw milk sheep cheese Carmen Carrano
This week’s coupon cuts
Use the code “SAUSAGE” to get 10% off chorizo, garlic, hot Italian sausage, as well as summer sandwich meat.
Use the code “NYBONES” to get 10% off organic bones, non-organic bones, and leaner New York steaks.
Click the green button below or the green words above to access these cuts!
Special Mention:
If you have any questions, observations, or comments, just send Kelsey an email at help[at]alderspring[dot]com.
Pictures from the ranch this week…
Earlier this week these three bandits were sneaking around down by the house. When Allie, out Great Pyrenees, showed up they hightailed it up the nearest tree!
Two fires to the west of us recently blew up, swathing the sky once more in smoke.
The pups are getting bigger!
This heifer is close to finish on fall pastures back at the home ranch. It’s our responsibility to give our cattle a happy, stress-free life with all of their needs met. In return they bless us with nourishment and wellness.
Want to follow along more day-to-day? Find us on Instagram and Facebook.
Quote of the Week
“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune in.”
– George Washington Carver
This week’s story: “Under the Lights of Mid-night”
Dear Friends
This Tuesday Morning: 2:20 AM: I flicked the barn lights on, and the new LEDs instantly burned bright (there are some things about technology that has made our lives better, it seems). Our 130-foot long barn structure is now easily illuminated from one end to the other. I made my way down along the cattle chute. We decided to finally have all of our cattle handling gear under roof, and I am grateful. I’ve put many years of dues working wild beef cattle in 2 feet of snow, pouring rain, 60 mph wind or all three at the same time. As I got the gates and loading chute ready, I reflected on life—a simpler, and a much less well-lit time when we first started ranching.
First barn: 15 by 25 feet, made of logs, unchinked, gaps whistling with winter wind. Light by the glow of a kerosene hurricane lamp. I’m trying to convince a brockle-faced cow to step into a head catch so I could simply just help her. Her calf was bug-eyed, sort of watching me walk, head hanging from the cow’s backside. His nose is swollen. Edema, from birth canal pressure. He’s hopelessly stuck, head and one foot protruding from his mother’s vulva which is swollen and sloppy with the hormonal softening flow of pregnancy. He will die soon if I don’t manage to get him out. In the feeble light I murmur a prayer that this time I’ll be able to get her neck caught in the head catch.
It’s the fourth time I’ve tried, and she’s kicked, dodged, bellered, and nearly ran over me in this, the 12 by 12 pen of the 15×25 foot space of the roughshod space of lodgepole pine log barn. It may be the last chance I get before she either kills or injures me, or blows through or over the interior barn pole fence. Both have happened several times in the past years, despite my attempts at calm, cool and reassuring.
Wild range cows are not into confined spaces. Especially in close proximity to humans.
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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