Just be sure the bones are from organic, grass-fed beef or organic, free range chickens or turkeys.

1. Place bones into a large stock pot or crockpot.

2. Add two tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (I use Braggs) to water prior to cooking. This helps to pull out important nutrients from the bones.

3. Fill pot with filtered water to cover bones.  Leave plenty of room for water to boil.  Adding beneficial herbs like turmeric, ginger, black peppercorns, rosemary, parsely and even cinnamon help leverage all the great healing power of your bone broth and enhance the potency (and the taste) of your broth. I also include one organic onion cut in quarters (unpeeled), one or two organic carrots, scrubbed, unpeeled and cut in thirds, one or two ribs or organic celery and a head of organic garlic broken into cloves, each clove crushed to release the allicin. You don't have to peel them either and a knob of peeled ginger.

4. Heat slowly. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for at least 6 hours. I typically leave beef bone broth simmering for 24 hours.

5. Cook long and slow. Chicken bones can cook for 6-48 hours. Beef bones can cook for 12-72 hours. A long and slow cook time is necessary in order to fully extract the nutrients in and around bone.

After cooking, the broth will cool and a layer of fat will harden on top. This layer protects the broth beneath. You can discard this layer but I include it. You can also skim it and use it in cooking. It's delicious. Strain out the veggies and bones and discard. I do scoop out the marrow from the bones and add it back into my broth. I then add back some fresh chopped veggies and simmer another 30-45 minutes until the vegetables are tender and then it's done!

Refrigerate if you plan to be eating it that week or freeze for later use. Sip on the broth or use as the base in a nutrient-dense soup.

To make a chicken bone broth use:

4 lbs. organic, free-range chicken wings, necks and feet (ask the butcher for these!) and the veggies and herbs from above or whatever you like. Don’t forget to include the apple cider vinegar.

The procedure is the same. Cook long and slow. Chicken bones can cook for 6-48 hours. When it finishes cooking, strain the solids out of the liquid and allow to cool, cover and refrigerate.  Use it within one week or freeze.

It makes a delicious base for my Immune Boosting Probiotic Soup. 

Bone broth contains collagen to make your skin supple and radiant. But that’s not all! Other valuable nutrients include gelatin, hyaluronic acid, chondroitin sulfate, proline, glycine, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium.  When you drink a broth made with a good source of red marrow, you are drinking all those stem cell factors that ultimately build your body’s strength and support your own immune function.  However, that’s why you need to know that the bones are truly from humanely raised animals that are green-fed and finished to get the best quality nutritional value.

This delicious, mineral-rich broth can be used to make soup to support smooth, strong skin and reduce cellulite. While that’s certainly a plus, that isn’t why I made it. It is also excellent for healthy joints, bones, ligaments, tendons, bones and gums, which is why I wanted to make it.  It is an amazing healing food and provides the body with raw materials to rebuild stronger and healthier cells. I’m all for that! So I did my periodic 3-day fast and just added a serving of bone broth each day and I have to say it was delicious and very satisfying as well.

The high quality marrow these beef bones contained (which I scooped out into my broth) is excellent for building blood if you have anemia and boosting immune function.  The gelatin in bone broth protects and heals the mucosal lining of the digestive tract and helps aid in the digestion of nutrients.  AND the amino acid glycine in the broth is a potent liver detoxifier. Perfect addition to my cleanse.