A Vegan's first recipe from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions

Okay, former vegan, I guess, at this point.  I now understand the points of view of both vegans and traditional food-ists, and can hold each point of view in my mind at the same time.

My first recipe from Nourishing Traditions is the Decidedly-Not-Vegan Beef Stock.  I realized that the large numbers of people spreading the word that bone broth is an absolute must for growing, healthy children are probably right.  Once this idea dawned on me, I quickly set events in motion to get a bone broth cooking in my kitchen.



I didn't know how to obtain ethical bones except to drive to Polyface Farm, which has store hours daily from 9 a.m. to noon, and get ethical, beyond-organic bones.  I'm so thankful to Omnivore's Dilemma for giving me this knowledge about where to go.  Some vegans, like me, just don't naturally know how to procure or cook this stuff (I don't want to speak for all vegans, but this was definitely foreign territory to me.)

Went to Polyface Farm on a lovely June day.  My daughter did not want to ever leave their porch swing.  Rocking there, she could have stayed there, looking at the beautiful cumulus clouds all day.

By the way, I may not be vegan any more, but any, I mean 100%, of animal products I consume are from animals I can either see in person and know their owners, or from Polyface.  I guess you could go see the animals at Polyface, too, even...but I didn't.  You can have environmental vegans, health vegans, or like me, purely ethical vegans.  I am at peace with the ethics of the animal foods I have found recently for my daughter's health.

Returning to the kitchen, now with a bag of various bones on ice, I needed to wait for my husband to get home in order to help me decipher this recipe.  Why?  Well, I had to figure out which of these bones (which looked pretty gross to me) were marrow bones, knuckle bones, foot bones, meaty rib bones, and neck bones.  Who knew this was going to be so freaking complicated!?  Thank goodness for husbands.  Husbands who are experts at cooking are very helpful if you are a vegan trying to figure out Sally Fallon's book.  He held my hand through the recipe, thankfully.  Twelve hours later, again with my husband's expert help, removed the bones and strained the soup into a large bowl.  And that's where I'm at now.  With this bowl full of what is apparently invaluable minerals for my daughter's health and growth, in the fridge, that smells....repulsive.  Sitting there among all those vegetables, waiting for the next step.  Waiting to be turned into one of the recipes from the Soup section of Nourishing Traditions.

I will also try to make these soups edible to myself.  Which means, I will no longer be vegan, and I will, after 25 years, no longer be vegetarian. (!!!)  I guess.  Or does it count if I don't eat meat, only bone broth?  Or even more tellingly, is it perhaps time to throw away our self imposed labels and ALL join together in the Real Food Movement in ALL its forms?  :) :)