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With Fall at our doorsteps, and the harvest upon us we can all feel the change in the air, the cool night and the brisk mornings. As the temps change, children head back to school, and the awareness of colds and flu’s becomes ever more present, we can do our best to keep our bodies in top notch shape and balance with all kinds of “food as medicine” approaches. One of my favorites is the making of broth. Now, you can buy boxes of broth at the store, and make things from that, but if you are interested in taking your kitchen witchin up a level (or two) you can turn to some ancient techniques.
“ Astragalus root, reishi, cordyceps, maitake, shiitake, chaga, turkey tail and lions mane are all exceptional ingredients.”
A number of things go into a good broth, I start with bones (if you don’t eat meat, no worries, veggies are excellent too). I keep the bones from chickens, and from the beef dishes too, though when making broth it is either chicken or beef based, I like them both, separate. These bones go in the kettle, covered with water, and a few tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar. The ACV helps pull the nutrition from the bones. Bone. The bones themselves yield minerals like calcium & phosphorus. Sodium, magnesium, and potassium may also be present. Then we have the marrow; bone marrow has vitamins A, B2, B12, and E, plus omega-3s, omega-6s, and minerals like calcium, iron, selenium, and zinc (1). Then there is the white parts we spit out, the connective tissue. This is full of glucosamine and chondroitin, which are used for our own connective tissue... like builds like. So don’t strip your bones naked, leave on the fleshy connective parts, they are so good for you!
Next I get to go into my cupboard and add handfuls of other herbs and mushrooms. Get creative, do some research, see what pulls your attention. Beware of where you research though, WebMD says reishi mushrooms have, “no proven health benefits” the foolishness of this statement is a whole other article... Anyway! Astragalus root, reishi, cordyceps, maitake, shiitake, chaga, turkey tail and lions mane are all exceptional ingredients. (This article is not going to break down the incredible power of these mushrooms, but if you are interested take a look here:
These roots and mushrooms have a power of immune stimulating/modulating packed within them, the key is to cook them long enough to pull it all out. The slow, and prolonged simmer is what we are after.
Lastly is my bag of scraps in the freezer, I learned about this trick a few years ago from a friend, I had no idea why she was freezing her onion skins! Carrot ends, celery butts
and tips, garlic & onion skins... almost all our vegetables (except things in the brassica family, such as broccoli or cabbage, these tend to taste odd) can be saved in a bag in the freezer, and added to our broth for cooking or soup. Compost and chicken food are popular locations for the seemingly unusable parts of the vegetables, but you can resurrect them with broth. This broth is an endeavor! I simmer it on low all day, (sometimes two days) until the bones will easily break in my hands, that is my signifier that all the nutrition has been pulled out of the broken pieces. (If you don’t have time to wait until the bones break, don’t worry! Your broth is nutritive after a day of cooking). Next I pull out my strainer, and siev out all the bits and pieces, and usually have 2-4 quarts of broth. This I pour into wide mouthed, pint sized mason jars and freeze. Narrow mouthed jars tend to break, and for my family of five this concentrated broth is enough to mix with some water and make a soup base from. Another fabulous use of the potent and lovely broth is a liquid for cooking your grains in! I have Sally Fallon’s, Nourish Traditions cookbook, which I love and have learned so much from. One excellent take away is to quit cooking my grains in regular water. Rice, quinoa, millet and/or barley, cook them in broth instead and your meal will be so much healthier!
Herbal medicine is a beautiful thing, and what I am striving for is an herbalist in every kitchen, in every home. Because our food is our medicine, and not just because Hippocrates said so, but because it is true, we are what we eat. We can alter the path of our future generations by nourishing our children, and ourselves deeply. A fed human, on real food is an entirely different mind and body than those who have grown up in food deserts. If we want health in community, in our family, in our home, we need to stock our pantries with real food, ancestral foods, traditional foods. Our DNA has co-evolved with nourishing, real food, not monosodium glutamate and high fructose corn syrup. Your health is in your hands, in your pantry, on your plate.
Jessica Spurr, Earthly Apothecary LLC