Lifelines and Chicken Feet

 

Ready for the Freezer

Chicken Feet in ice cold water and prepping the crockpot for cooking

Ready for the 1st cooking

End of the 1st Cooking

First Broth strained off

The 2nd cooking begins

1st on the Left, 2nd on the right

2nd ready for the freezer

1st ready for the freezer

Nourishing Chicken Noodle Soup

In recent years I came to know about a book called Nourishing Traditions:The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon. A friend introduced me to this book. It goes back to food traditions long forgotten – especially in a need it now society. I read and read and read it. Tried some of the things noted in the book but then put it aside as other interests occupied my time. Now even more recently I have watched a video series that begins to take people back to traditions long lost by most of us (or never known to many of us!) and found Sally Fallon being one of the presenters. She shared and showed about making bone broth and using it – this is something I had intently read in her book, tried and found to ‘OK’ but not something I aspired to do repeatedly. I am a very visual/hands-on learner so seeing this video set a whole new set of wheels into motion! My learning to be more resourceful took on new fervor.

This resourcefulness took on a whole new meaning for me in March of 2023 – OK that’s not quite correct – this adventure truly started in May of 2022. Chicken Feet – yes you read that right. Butchering chickens happened then and I have known I wanted to make my own bone broth – really good bone broth with lots of collagen and chicken feet can and have been used for many years to achieve that (chicken heads – per Sally Fallon’s video demonstration - can be used also but - oh goodness - I’m not quite ‘there’ yet and not sure I’ll ever be ‘there’ on that one). During butchering the feet were saved, cleaned/scrubbed and frozen for later use. Now come to March of ’23 the next part of the adventure continued and let me tell you - NEVER have I EVER skinned chicken feet - and I had to use one of my life lines and call a friend on this one (by the way – it’s the friend that introduced me to the Nourishing Traditions book). Thank goodness for trusted friends who are more educated on this than me!! I thought the skin should just peel off – um no. So the life line told me it’s a lot like blanching skin off of tomatoes or peaches. Put the chicken feet into boiling water for 20-30 seconds then plunge them into ice cold water. Okay this did help. It was not a perfect fix but I did get it accomplished with better ease. I have to admit I was a little – ok maybe a lot – grossed out by doing this. Wow – talk about a learning curve here! But I was successful and my efforts were rewarded!! The resulting bone broth was truly amazing!!!! Cooking twice as instructed: the first broth yielded the wonderful, very thick results and the second cooking the wonderful slightly less thick results. Wowza I can tell you that this WAS worth it!! The broth was frozen for later use and I have just recently made chicken noodle soup and I’m here to say that the resulting soup was way more satisfying than any store bought broth has ever produced for me. Truly nourishing to the body in a way that cannot be easily described.  Wow what I’ve been missing for too many years. New ways, New traditions often come with a learning curve – but don’t be afraid to jump in and learn more!

(Of note I have also made the beef bone broth and it too was wonderful!! Have used oxtail – and that can be about as crazy to think about as using chicken feet for one not used to such things! Learning curves yet again.)

Life – Living Inspired: Make connections to know who our lifelines are and do not be afraid to use them!!

 

Seek out the real gems and make every effort not to waste them!

Pure Sunshine!!

YUM!

The beginning of not letting it go to waste.

Frozen lemon disk prep

Ready for the freezer

The last bit of goodness to save

Sour, bitter, bad, yuck, a piece of junk - are just a couple things that come to mind when the word Lemon is mentioned, or even ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade’ – ok that’s a little bit better than the first 5 thoughts shared. But when you go out seeking lemons and find some real gems you make every effort to NOT let them go to waste. I LOVE lemons – the real deal kind – especially picked fresh off the tree, no wax or harsh chemical sprays on the rind and WAY more sweeter than sour (ok yes it’s still somewhat sour). I had a weekend retreat at Mrs. Pfanny’s Garden Cottage a while back and was blessed to be able to enjoy some time in their Geothermal Greenhouse among the lemon and orange trees – right here in Northeast Nebraska in February no less!! I was able to sit and enjoy, smell and taste, pause and ponder – what more should one do – oh pick and prepare!! Meyer lemons are known for being sweeter and these did not disappoint. I have done this once before, making as much use of the whole lemon as possible. Grating them for the zest, juicing them, cutting up the remaining fleshy chunks of the rind and freezing all of them for later use. That zest can/will be used in cooking/baking, the frozen juice disks go into my water to drink or even into cooking/baking and the frozen rinds get plopped into my drinking water. Oh man, I love me some lemon!!!

Seeking out the real gems: Supporting local has become more important to me in recent years. As I get back into gardening (and even into herbalism) more and seek to expand my gluten free food prep/baking knowledge, the work it takes proves to me that I want to learn to be resourceful in my efforts and have more self-sufficiency when able. Learning to use what I have, can make, can do is intriguing me more and more. I also want to seek to support others in their efforts also. Pfanny’s Farm is truly a gem – to some it may seem a hidden gem but honestly Julie is truly working to get her word and efforts out there. If this gem is still hidden from you check out pfannysfarm.com.

 

Life – Living Inspired: seek out the real gems and make every effort to NOT let them go to waste!!!