All About Grass Fed Beef Bone Broth

Good broth resurrects the dead. - South American Proverb

Bone broth has had a resurgence into the mainstream in the last few years, and for good reason. It's an ancient food, known for fortifying our immune system, restoring the gut lining, replenishing our joints and tissues, and being rich in amino acids and minerals not easily found in our Western diet.

Namely, bone broth is rich in glycine (an amino acid), collagen, glucosamine (essential for joint health), calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur, and trace minerals. By utilizing the whole animal, we can add a spectrum of nutrients to our diets that are no longer commonly found.

For further reading on the benefits and history of bone broth, as well as some cooking tips for creating your own, check out the article, "Broth is Beautiful" from the Weston A. Price Foundation or listen to this entertaining presentation, "Bone Broth and Health: A Look at the Science", from Dr. Kaayla Daniel at the Ancestral Health Society.

How to Use Bone Broth

Broth is just the beginning! Use bone broth instead of boullion or packaged broth when called for in your favorite recipes. Create chili, soups, stews, sauces, or drink from a cup with a dash of salt for a warming tonic as the weather cools down.

Sourcing Bones

Using high quality organic, grass-fed and grass-finished beef bones is essential to creating broth. From a nutritional perspective, the animal cannot give what it doesn't have. Livestock fed an inappropriate diet will not have bones with adequate nutrition to extract for bone broth.

This is especially true if animals were exposed to glyphosate, the active ingredient in common herbicide (RoundUp) used in modern agriculture. There is evidence that livestock exposed to glyphosate (through food or water runoff) will not have an adequate amount of glycine, an essential amino acid abundant in bone broth, and the livestock will have glyphosate instead of glycine.

This is worrisome because our connective tissues and joints will accept glyphosate in the stead of glycine, as they are chemically very similar molecules. This can be very disruptive for our health, as we know human proteins contaminated with glyphosate cease to functional normally. Glyphosate is prohibited for use for USDA certified organic farms, so choosing organic keeps glyphosate out of your bone broth.

We have high quality beef bones in stock right now! Our bones are certified organic, grass-fed, grass-finished, and grown locally near Emmett, ID. Call or email to order! 

Beef Stock

from Nourishing Traditions, p. 122

INGREDIENTS

• about 4 pounds beef marrow and knuckle bones

• 1 calves foot, cut into pieces (optional)

• 3 pounds meaty rib or neck bones

• 4 or more quarts cold filtered water

• 1/2 cup vinegar

• 3 onions, coarsely chopped

• 3 carrots, coarsely chopped

• 3 celery sticks, coarsely chopped

• several sprigs of fresh thyme, tied together

• 1 teaspoon dried green peppercorns, crushed

• 1 bunch parsely

>> Continue reading Beef Stock recipe

Bone broth is packed with nutrition, versatile, and economical. I hope you found this useful. Tag us on Instagram @stjohnsorganicfarm when you make your own bone broth!

Ecuadorian Quinoa Casserole (from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)

A photo from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook

Serves 6-8

From the Sally Fallon Cookbook, Nourishing Traditions

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups quinoa

• 6 cups warm filtered water plus 2 tablespoons whey, yoghurt, kefir or buttermilk

• 1 bunch green onions, chopped

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1 teaspoon annatto seeds (available in Latin American markets)

• 4 cups beef or chicken stock 

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 3 cloves garlic, mashed

• 2 medium potatoes, washed and sliced

• 1 bunch cilantro, tied together

• 1/2 cup piima cream or creme fraiche 

• 5 tablespoons cream cheese

DIRECTIONS

This authentic recipe, from a chipper centenarian living in Equador, incorporates all the basic principles for easy digestion and thorough assimilation--use of rich stock made by boiling bones for a long time, presoaking of grain and the addition of cultured cream and homemade cheese, rich in fat-soluble vitamins. 

Soak quinoa in warm water mixture at least 12 hours. Rinse and drain well. Saute annatto seeds in oil for several minutes, or until oil turns yellow, and remove with a slotted spoon. Saute onions in the same oil, adding garlic at the last minute. Add quinoa and stock and bring a boil. Skim, reduce heat, cover and simmer for I hour more on very low heat. About 1/2 hour before serving, stir in the potatoes and salt. About 10 minutes before serving, add cilantro. To serve, remove cilantro and stir in cultured cream and cheese. 

NOTE FROM SALLY

Quinoa is a staple food of the Incas and the Indians in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. During his pioneering investigations in the 1930's, Weston Price noted that the Indians of the Andes mountains valued gruel made of quinoa for nursing mothers. Quinoa contains 16 to 20 percent protein and is high in cystine, lysine and methionine-amino acids that tend to be low in other grains. It contains iron, calcium and phosphorus, B vitamins and vitamin E,and is relatively high in fat. Like all grains, quinoa contains antin utrients and therefore requires a long soaking as part of the preparation process. SWF

Beef Stock (from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon Morell)