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Bone Broth - done right! (part 1 of 3)

11/27/2018

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We've been hearing it for years, those of us in the integrity food movement - Bone Broth, its the best thing going.

Right?

Well, yes, no, maybe... let me explain.

Let's think logically for a moment... What is the densest part of an animal?

If you answered, "The bones" you are correct - (congratulations, here's a sticker).
Bones are very dense, they hold the animal upright, don't deteriorate quickly and have been there since the beginning of its life.

So, if the animal has a history of mistreatment, stress, drugs, poor feed, bioaccumulation of chemicals (these are all factory farming side effects by the way) then, where, pray tell do those thing accumulate?
​
Right, again - in the bones.

So don't eat them.

Here is where I digress to being a lunatic Rancher again.

You know, the lunatic who says to the Vegan passing by my Grass-Fed and Finished Booth at the Farmer's Market: "Why don't you eat meat?"
"Because I don't agree with the way Animals are treated in our Modern Farming Systems", they reply.
"I wholeheartedly agree, if we didn't raise our own animals the right way, I would encourage everyone to be like you"
At this point, they are stunned. Blinking their eyes with astonishment they can't believe a Rancher wearing a cowboy hat would advocate the the world go vegan. Not sure whether to hug me or run away scared, they stammer the only word that comes to mind..."Huh?"
I take that as an invitation to excitedly explain how farming can be done with integrity, truth and dignity towards the animals and environment entrusted to our care. How this can heal our hurting earth, and how these methods produce an exceptional tasting, nutrient dense product far superior to any vegetable available, all-the-while sequestering 10x the carbon we produce.

So, why would I campaign against something as food righteous as bone broth?

Because well meaning folks read a nutrition website heralding the benefits of Bone Broth then run off to their local industrial grocery store, find the poorest quality, "organic" factory chicken or beef with no thought for how it was raised, kept, fed or cared for and make an easily digestible direct injection of bone broth, laden with chemicals and antibiotics directly into their digestive system, all the while proclaiming "health".

Are you kidding me?

I am now in that awkward position of having to tell people the truth - and boy-oh-boy is that unpopular in this current climate!

So, here we go...

Just like the poorly informed but well intentioned Vegan, "Bone Broth-ers" are lost in the clutter of commercialism. Doomed to poison themselves if not tossed a life line of common sense. They drink gallons of industrial "organic" Broth simply because it has a fancy label confident that it will heal their every ailment.

Lord help us!

When you drink broth, made from a factory-tortured animal you are consuming the greatest nutritional density you can find of that animals mistreatment, poor health and shoddy feed regime. If you don't start with the best possible elements, from the beginning, you are hamstringing your efforts from the get go. With nutritionally dense products, like bone broth, you must start at the apex of quality before distillation and rendering (same goes for making lard and tallow from fats by the way).

"Well," you say, "My beef bone broth is "Grass-fed"." So it is just fine, right? Wrong. Read this article to find out what "Grass-fed" really means.

In this and the following blogs (parts 2 and 3 will follow) I am going to detail how you, at home, can make the very best bone broth in large quantities with very little money and effort. You can have significantly greater quality, for a fraction of the price you will find in any store. It will take effort, but no, you will not collapse from exhaustion. We've done this for years in our home and get better each time we process a batch. It can be done on a Saturday with a leisurely amount of exertion. Watch the football game, or visit with the family and process a batch of broth to keep your system well fed and going for 6 months.

Efficiency comes with practice. Practice requires patience. Your health is worth it. Trust me.

Ok, let's begin...

First you need good equipment. Notice I said "good" not expensive. I believe in frugality. Experts tell us that our Grandparents lived in the generation of resource extraction, and we live in the generation of resource recycling. It is astonishing what is being thrown away by our generation.

One aspect I love about bone broth is reuse - it tickles the little environmentalist deep inside my Rancher heart. You get to re-use the jars, process an exceptional product, from a somewhat unwanted byproduct (bones) on your own, with used equipment, and all for the price of pennies.
​
It's a win-win.

Your task is to find the following:

1. Used canning jars. All shapes and sizes. Look on Craigslist. If Craigslist-ers give you the heebie-jeebies then use Facebook Marketplace. You can view the profile of the person you are buying from with Facebook Marketplace, so at least you can see who the person is and judge whether they are reputable or not. My wife feels a little better about her transactions on Facebook Marketplace rather than Craigslist because of this. Anyway, use one of the apps/websites that has used stuff for sale. It's a great way to conserve resources and keep things out of landfills. Plus, you're buying canning jars - axe murders usually don't have canning equipment for sale, so you are probably safe anyway.

2. A pressure canner. I found one on the side of the road one time. Really, like as if someone was waiting for the trash guys to pick it up. This stuff is so unused, in today's society, that I've found them for $3 at a garage sale (they sell new for $200). They look like this... make sure it has a pressure gauge.

Or buy one from an elderly lady who loves to garden and "put up" the extra larder for winter. Go over to her house, have a great talk with her and make her day - it will make yours too (trust me I know from experience). She has probably forgotten more about canning than I will ever know. She will most likely enjoy giving you all her canning secrets.

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3. A bunch of lids. New ones - don't reuse old lids, regardless of how good they look. If you do, your jars won't seal right and your broth will go bad. Go to any store as common as WalMart and get a box of new ones. You might spend $5 on a dozen. 

4. Rings - for the size jars you have. 

5. Jar lifter. This handy little invention makes lifting a very hot jar from your pressure cooker/canner a breeze. Your jars can get to 250 degrees inside the canner. After the canner depressurizes, you will need to lift the jars out (more on that later), so you will need this lifter. 

6. Pastured, non-GMO fed, non-Soy fed chicken bones. If you've raised them and fed them on your own - good, use those. You will be the sole guarantee that they are fed and pastured correctly. If you don't or can't raise chickens because you live in a nanny-state that tells you what you can and cannot do with you land, then try to find a highly reputable source for bones. Ask to see the feed bag labels. Feed bag labels are very common. You don't have to be a genius to read them either - they read like food ingredients. You can read a label and know exactly what ingredient the chicken is eating. Look for the word "organic" before each ingredient. This will guarantee non-GMO. A feed bag label should be as common as a shovel on a pasture based ranch. If a farmer cannot furnish a feed bag label he or she is a fraud and is most likely buying commodity chicken and passing it off as their own. 

Do not settle for "Organic" chicken bones from a grocery store. "Organic" when it comes to fruits and veggies means everything. When it comes to animals it means almost nothing. The health of an animal stems from its environment and interaction with its environment. Animals can survive on almost anything, but coop them up, remove natural light, dirt, the ability to move around (a lot) and normal animal function and their health (plus the health of anything consuming that animal - like you) will plummet.  We say 80% of animal welfare is environmental. The remaining 20% is what they are fed. 

To learn more about what a chicken should eat click here. 

We take the breasts, wings and legs off the chicken. We use the backs as pictured here for broth. This does two things; first, you get a ton of meat and fat with your bones. The fat is drenched with Omega-3's (the same reason we eat salmon). These fats are perfectly suited for assimilation by your body as you digest the broth. Your gut lining can easily recognize this and digest it quickly for healing. 

Secondly, this portion of the animal is often wasted. You are conserving resources when you use chicken backs. They really have no other purpose than broth - so be a green warrior and use the chicken backs. 

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Now that you've gathered what you need, we can begin the make the broth broth. This will take a day - but it is very easy work. In part two of this blog I will detail how to make the Broth using a pressure cooker. This will ensure an extremely high quality broth with much more nutrient density than crock pot, or conventional methods provide. 

In part three, we will pressure can our Broth to USDA standards. This allows a large portion to be made at once, keeping cost and effort to a minimum and allow us to safely store our Broth as a shelf-stable item without using any energy to operate a  freezer or refrigerator. 

Stay tuned, we are going to save money, save resources and heal our guts all at once... 
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Trusting a wolf to guard the sheep

10/31/2018

3 Comments

 
Well, it’s that season again. It’s time to wield the all powerful voting punch-card, an American right and tradition, vital to our Republic. 
​
In 1787 a woman asked Benjamin Franklin as he was exiting the Constitutional Convention, “Well, Doctor, what type of Government have we - a Republic or Monarchy?"

​His response, was both direct and prophetic “A Republic, if you can keep it”

And, with this season comes a peppering of “what say you” emails and inquires to our Ranch, regarding, policy, procedures and methods.  As such, we do appreciate the confidence you have in asking our opinion, but I must warn you now, if you continue reading, all bets are off. We are sure to disappoint, at least, everyone, once. 

So here it goes… (Turn back now if you like me and wish to continue holding my opinion in high esteem). As my Pops once said “you can please some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people some of the time”

Of course, most are asking what is the deal with Proposition 12 – the one that is supposedly designed to “stop animal cruelty”– yeah right, that will surely be the result.

In detail, here is how this will go down. Most folks will vote “yes” because it makes them feel good. Just like buying a package of meat that says “grass-fed”, from Sprouts will make them feel good. The Truth - It’s not real grass fed, and the Semi-truck backing up to the rear of the building, unloading pallets of factory Beef, all labeled “grass-fed” should be your first indicator. 

Or, one of my favorites (or not) is the “cage free” label. Meaning that, according to law that… "an indoor or outdoor controlled environment for egg-laying hens within which hens are free to roam unrestricted; are provided enrichments that allow them to exhibit natural behaviors, including, at a minimum, scratch areas, perches, nest boxes, and dust bathing areas; and within which farm employees can provide care while standing within the hens’"

​Now, does that sound like this… 
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Or this...
I bet you’d be shocked to know that your well intentioned vote was circumvented when you passed measure 8, a few years ago and voted for “cage free”. That’s right, you intended for hens to be free to roam, as in video above, but the industrial, conventional, factory CAFOs and their well trained lawyers (and there are plenty, believe me) found a hundred loopholes so that what is occurring in the former pictures is legal, whilst the latter picture is what most voters think they got.
​
Here’s another thought for you – any idea why, if measure 8 was so effective, are we are voting again on this issue? Yep, you guessed it – because the CAFO industrialists always circumvent the rules. In other words, it didn't work.

In Fact, in this latest measure (Prop 12) you will notice that the required space for a laying hen is no “less than 144 square inches of usable floor space per hen”. This is totally unreasonable! No hen can live healthy in that amount of space – no matter what the cute drawing on the egg carton depicts!

They need acres, not inches.

So, you will soon see massive, factory hen CAFOs in California with 144.01 inches of floor space for each hen – and it will all be legal.

So, what is the answer?

Simple – Vote

Just not with a punch card. Instead, use a dollar.

That’s right. Stop taking meaningless action that only results in increased pay for Lawyers working for industrial farms splitting hairs on one-tenth of an inch measurement for a hen CAFO and start hitting them where it hurts.

Take your voting dollar away from them and give it to an integrity food farmer. Stop buying at the supermarket. It doesn’t have to be us, in fact, we don’t currently offer eggs. But, you could frequent a Farmers Market where eggs are sold and support a hard working farmer with your voting dollar. (Pastured eggs are very common by the way) Just be sure to ask all the right questions. Yes, it will require more effort than just voting once every few years, but, at least it will be rewarding and effective. Plus, the Farmer will really appreciate it!
Here are three general guidelines you should look for…
  • Look
Does it pass the look test?
In beef, this means yellow fat – indicating the presence of beta carotene. This means the beef is truly grass fed, as the beta carotene color (the same element that makes a carrot orange) can only come from a cow eating grass. If it is eggs you are looking for, look for orange yolks. This will indicate pasturing.
  • Ask
Does it pass the ask test?
Ask about the methods? Be specific. Say things like “Does this chicken’s feet touch green grass every day?” That’s pretty specific. Notice, I did not use any of the most popular catch phrases like “Free-Range”, “Pastured”, “Outdoors” etc. This is because almost all of these terms are adulterated by the industry. Another tip - if he or she doesn't answer your question with a single phrase, but excitedly explains, in detail, the sheer ecstasy of his or her latest pastured farming methods for 30 minutes, and you leave with enough information to start a small farm, your on the right track!
  • Think
Does it pass the disappointment test?
Is your Farmer ever out of stock? Does he or she ever struggle with seasonality? Farming is biological, not mechanical. There are rain storms and droughts, ups and downs, predators and prey. All this effects supply. One of the primary reasons Henry Ford invented the assembly line factory, was to get a uniform product with predictability and consistency. By nature, this cannot (or should not) happen in true, biological farming.
I got a call a few weeks ago from a patron of another farming operation. She told me that she believed that her Farmer was buying factory meat and selling it at the Farmers Markets as their own product. I asked her why she would think such a thing. Her answer was telling…”They always have what I want, and in plenty. Plus they attend over twenty Farmers Markets and only farm a few acres” – I told her to trust her instincts and find a different supplier. It’s this kind of thinking that will help steer you in the right direction. Trust your gut – there are shysters out there, even at the Farmers’ Market. In short, does your farmer disappoint (occasionally)? This is a good indicator of true sourcing.

The campaign supporting Prop 12 has collected 12 million dollars; the opposition has spent just under $600K. Imagine, just for a moment if all those dollars were used to ”VOTE” for a Farmer who kept his hens out on pasture (like us) or cared for his brood hogs (mama Sows giving birth) in a field instead of a factory? Can you imagine the ground swell of inertia to collapse CAFOs if all that money went to hard working, small farmers?

One last thought – do you really trust the very agencies that brought us Mad Cow Disease, by advising Farmers to feed dead cows to cows, to regulate CAFOs?

Do we really want the wolf to guard the sheep?

Come on folks, really.
​
So, in conclusion – Vote next week, then every week after that. Keep voting and never stop.

3 Comments

Free-Range and Grass-fed cooking oils

11/13/2014

1 Comment

 
PictureFree-range, Organic Fed (No Soy, No GMO's) Pork Lard - notice the pure white color.
Hey Folks,

What kind of oil do you cook with?

Almost every meal I cook here at #SonRiseRanch starts with some type of oil. Oil is an essential part of cuisine not only because it provides a medium for frying and sautéing, but because it is a source of energy and a vehicle for fat-soluble vitamins.

There are many options. Some traditional fats include:

  • Butter (Raw cream butter is rich in beta carotene only if the Cow is grazing on green grass and not confined; see photo below)
  • Ghee - just the fat portion of butter 
  • Lard - rendered swine fat
  • Tallow - rendered bovine fat
  • Shmaltz (drippings)
  • Olive Oil 
  • Coconut Oil

PictureStore bought grade AA butter (thanks a lot USDA) pale white in color (on right). Raw, A2A2 Grass fed Jersey cream butter made by Eve Lindamood at SonRise Ranch in Garden Valley (on left).
Some of the newer oils on the market are:
  • Canola Oil
  • Soybean Oil
  • Corn Oil
  • Shortening (Crisco)
  • Margarine

With so many options, and a plethora of contradicting scientific claims about the health of these oils, how can one choose which fat to cook with?

I take the following into consideration: 

  • How the oil is grown before it is extracted:
  • Are pesticides used to grow the plant which oil is extracted from?
  • Are oil crops grown using methods that deplete topsoil?
  • Are the crops grown using genetically engineered seed?
  • How the oil is extracted and refined:
  • Is the oil extracted using toxic chemicals such as hexane?
  • Are the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils oxidized during extraction or refinement?
  • Have the oils been hydrogenated, or chemically altered, to change the consistency of the product?

Unfortunately, the answers are almost always “yes” for the newer oils listed above. What’s more, these vegetable oils have replaced nearly all of the traditional fats in restaurants, packaged foods, and have even snuck their way into products labeled as pure olive oil.

What this means is that I cook at home 99% of the time. I even like to make French fries in beef tallow made from #SonRiseRanchGrassFedBeef.

For the traditional fats, the answers are almost always “no” to the questions posed above, as long as the animals are raised on healthy pasture, and the plants are grown organically. Devotees of the lipid-heart disease hypothesis will warn you about the lipid profiles in traditionally used animal fats, but good science and personal experience can vouch for the health benefits of the fat-soluble vitamins, non-oxidized cholesterol, and pure energy contained therein.

We are currently offering rendered beef suet (called tallow) and rendered pork fat (called lard) so you don't have to save your bacon fat.


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