Bone broth, or stock as you might better know it by, is a staple for nourishing your body and has a myriad of uses in recipes. Never throw out your bones or carcasses from chicken or other poultry, or from roasts, ribs… If you can’t make bone broth from these saved bones right away, freeze them until you have a stockpile.

Soup bones are cheap, however, and you should try and source some from a farmer who raises grass-fed natural cows or sheep. If you raise your own animals and take them to a processor, don’t forget to specifically ask for all bones as soup bones, because they will definitely not give them to you unless you ask.

I like to make things in quantity and then be done with it for a while, instead of constantly having a pot of stock or bone broth simmering on the stove all the time.

This is how I make roasted bone broth from raw bones.

Take bones from the freezer and place in a roasting pan with salt pepper and coconut oil in a 300 to 350 degree oven.

Remove from oven periodically and scrape the bottom of the pan and stir the bones up, turning them over to brown on all sides.

Once the bones are well browned, cut up two large onions and two or three heads of garlic and place in the roasting pan. Garlic is definitely one of the things you should always buy organic, and I just take the cloves off the bulb and leave the skins and paper on, putting it all in the pan. It is so much faster than peeling them, they will be strained out later anyway, and there is a lot of extra vitamins and minerals… in the skins.

Roast the onions, garlic and bones until they are nice and brown as well, then take the pan out of the oven.

Since I am making a large quantity of bone broth, I am going to use an 18 qt. electric roaster oven I have, but you could either use a large stock pot on the stove, or a slow cooker (one that does not leach lead.)

Fill it with good filtered water, add your bones, all the drippings, onions and garlic, then add what you might have on hand for more flavor and vitamins and minerals…

I added carrots, beets, organic lemons, jalapeño pepper, ginger root. It was all I had on hand that needed to be used up in my fridge but you could add celery, kale, swiss chard, or anything.

The important ingredient now is to add apple cider vinegar (really as much as you want, and I added about a half pint) which will help break down the bones and remove the collagen and minerals from them.) I used my rosemary apple cider vinegar that I made this fall.

Now you want to bring the stock to a low boil and if there is any foam (sometimes there is with poultry) you can skim that off. Lower the heat to a simmer and let it simmer for several days. The quantity of liquid will lower and strengthen the broth, finally turning it into a gel (jello or aspic) like consistency when cool. Add salt and pepper to taste. I also have added about a pint of  my Master Tonic  because it needed more punch. You can take out broth to drink, and then replace that quantity with filtered water and keep your stock going all week.  The roasted garlic have mostly slipped out of their skins, and if not, they are wonderful whole just sucked out of their skins.  Very mild and yummy.  When I strain out everything I leave the whole garlic cloves and the sliced onions in the broth, and the chunky bits of Master Tonic.  I use a colander with large wholes that fits inside my stockpot to drain, then I pick put the garlic and onions to add back in.

I ladle off the hot broth when it is done into quart mason jars and put the lid on while it is hot. It will create an airlock seal and then you can store the jars in the refrigerator and it will last for many months this way, unopened. Or you could freeze some for later in ziplock freezer bags. For heaven’s sake don’t skim off the fat!

I headed to Dallas tomorrow for a week, to rework our website and Valentine’s menu while my milkman is here taking care of the farm.

I won’t have time to cook or think about food, or the willpower to resist while I am in Panem, so I am taking this bone broth, our well water, raw milk, kefir grains, diatomaceous earth and everything to make my kefir smoothie.

Wish me luck with culture shock and pray that the man will look after the baby lambs, all 40 of them.