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Dear Friends and Partners,

Welcome to Alderspring’s weekend edition newsletter!

In this letter is Glenn’s weekly story, a suite of pics about work on the ranch this week, and an update on this week’s featured cuts!

Weekly Story: Trial by Fire

Featured Cut Flash: 25% off on pork sausages! Also 15% off Flap Steaks, Ground Beef, Roast & Ground Packs, and Wild Hunter!


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.


Next shipping days are August 22 and 23!

Place your order by Sunday at midnight on the 21st to get your order shipped out next week!


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 15% off on Wild Hunter (it’s back!), Roast & Ground Packs, Sirloin Flap Steaks, and Regular Ground Beef.

In addition, we just posted some 16ths–called the “grassfed” 16ths that are discounted 20 to 25% off a la carte prices.

And finally, the weekend flash! Get an unprecedented 25% off on pork sausage!

Find this week’s featured cuts here!

This week on the ranch…

What you see in this photo is one of many beaver ponds up on our range…but what’s with the electric fence? It’s fully fenced on both sides, though it’s hard to see the fence on the other side of the pond in this photo. The fence is to keep our cattle out of this and other beaver ponds while we graze the herd in the area nearby. We want to avoid mucking up the pond, but perhaps more importantly, beavers actually rely on these grasses and sedges for their summer food. By fencing off the ponds and a portion of the grass, we’ve made sure the beavers have plenty of forage to get to winter. And they’ll thank us for it by continuing to build dams in this area, raising the water table and actually increasing soil moisture and forage, meaning more grass for beavers, cattle, and wildlife alike.

This week was the “big ride” to bring the cattle down from the range! It’s a 2-day journey, some of it over some hot & dry country like you see here in this shot. We keep the herd moving across spots like this, in part to keep moving and get to water before the cattle get too hot, and in part to limit grazing so we don’t impact this already-dry spot. In the back, Wesley and daughters Melanie and Maddy are moving the herd along, while the rest of the riding crew goes ahead to keep the front of the herd pointed in the right direction.

A portion of our ride back from the range involves a quick trek down Highway 93, one of the main highways through Idaho. We send riders ahead and behind the herd to warn incoming cars. By law, cattle actually have the right of way on roads like this, though we try to get our herd through as quickly as possible so we don’t unnecessarily delay the travelers on the road! Thankfully, most of the drivers take it in stride–it comes part and parcel with driving in cattle country and a herd of cattle on the road isn’t an uncommon sight!

And here we are, arriving at our final destination. The herd is back from the range and eagerly headed out to the fresh green pastures we have waiting for them! For us, it marks the end of another successful summer journey.



Quote of the Week

“The one-way plow would later be cursed as the tool that destroyed the plains because of its efficiency at ripping up grass.”
― Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl


This week’s story: Trial by Fire

After sculpting a perfectly designed-in-the-dirt ergonomic chair under a thicket of Douglas-fir regrowth, I reached into my saddlebags for a quick bite to eat. The living green conifer shade I found somehow escaped the demise of most of the blackened skeleton forest around me.

Many of the coal-black trees were grotesquely twisted shapes not in any way relatable to the stereotypical coniferous form of a pyramidal Christmas tree.

Yet they were the wildfire burned version of a Douglas-fir, albeit a diseased one. The explanation for the deformation was infection by dwarf mistletoe. The tiny parasitic plant wreaks havoc on the hormonal balance of a host tree resulting in freakish branch patterns that eventually kill entire trees and even forests….

Read the rest on our blog by clicking below!

Click here to read “Trial by Fire”


This Week’s FEatured Cuts From Alderspring’s Wild Pastures

Find all of this week’s deals on the webstore here!

A quick summary of this week’s featured cuts:

(As always, only you newsletter readers have access to these discounts)

FIRST! Flash deal for this weekend only! An UNPRECEDENTED 25% OFF on pork sausage!

Find all those featured cuts this week here!

And this week (until Sunday the 8th at midnight MST) you can get 15% off on the following cuts:

  • Sirloin flap steaks (a beauty on the grill!)
  • Regular ground beef
  • The popular Roast & Ground Pack
  • And Wild Hunter Blend (our very popular blend designed to provide diverse nutrition for your pets)
Find all of this week’s cuts here!


That’s daughter Annie and the 6-year-old mare, Reba. Reba started the summer by bucking Annie off into a sagebrush. A few solid days on the range, and she changed her tune (and her attitude) pretty quickly! Turns out, Reba just needed a way to work off some energy, and she thrived when given a job herding cattle. Now she’s become a dependable mount!



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.

Category: Alderspring's Weekly Newsletter

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Natalie

    August 21, 2022 at 2:12 am

    Have seen locals in my part of the world moving both sheep and cattle on public roads multiple times and I always enjoy watching how they work, even when I was forewarned about upcoming cattle and told to “just drive slowly though and don’t stop”. Rather cool to be surrounded by them; like sitting in a slow-moving river.

    Most of the tourists also enjoy it… and consider it part of the adventure!

    Reply
    • Alderspring Ranch

      August 21, 2022 at 3:39 am

      I agree with you Natalie. But there are those…

      -that piled up their semi truck into my neighbor’s cattle, injuring many and thankfully not killing any–or his kids who were on horseback
      -or that refused to yield to another friend’s kids herding cattle down the highway on horseback and so my friend rode his horse up to the man, now standing alongside his car, yelling at my friend’s kids to get out of the way. And that is when a little rope rage happened and my pay roped the yelling gent and proceeded to drag him horseback down the highway until man finally said uncle.
      -or the Beemer that came screaming by me standing on the middle line with my horse lead rope in hand and a big wooden stick in the other. I proceeded to take the baseball swing stance at his front windsheild right in front of him when he slammed on his brakes, jumped out of the car and came at me, stick in my hand. “Were you gonna crack my windshield,” he says. Stick still cocked, now at him, I said “yes I was. With my kids up there on horseback with those cattle, I was indeed.”
      -And there’s more. Some poetic justice where cow craps on continental pushing them or cow kicks the grill to pieces after one too many bumper nudges.

      But fo the most part, Natalie, people are good with sharing the road.

      -glenn

      Reply
      • Natalie

        August 21, 2022 at 5:23 am

        Sadly, there will always be ignorant, arrogant, selfish jerks out there, and people who just don’t pay attention. But hurray for poetic justice!

        Reply

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