Bone Broth

Great color!

This weekend's grey and rainy tone made my bone broth seem even more important. A warming, nourishing antidote to the blustery weather.

There are many description of making bone broth on the internet, and no one way to do it. The only thing that's really consistent is that you need to add an acidic element to help pull the minerals out of the bones, and that you need to cook the bones a long time to get the most nutrients out of them.

Sauerkraut?? You betcha!

I'm on a sauerkraut kick. I just made my second batch and it's delicious, one of my new favorite condiments. 

Latest batch results.

I never liked it growing up, but I'd only had the store-bought stuff.  The most important difference is that the sauerkraut you buy at the store that's sold unrefrigerated has none of the key nutritional values that home-made has. 

It's not only rich in vitamin C and other nutrients, it's rich in enzymes and probiotics. I love the fact that we can eat food instead of taking a powder or capsule. Well guess what? So can our dogs. Yes, dogs can eat sauerkraut. It's just fermented cabbage. It's actually closer to prey animal stomach contents than straight raw vegetables, and is an excellent addition to a fresh food diet. You can add other veggies to the cabbage too, like seaweed, to make it even more nutritious.

How much? Well of course there's no dose for this sort of thing. It's food, just be sensible.

So how do you do it yourself? 

• Read the simple instructions on the Wild Fermentation website (this is the method I use).
• Buy a crock. You might be able to find one at a thrift store, but I found them at a great price here. You need to have the straight sides (vs. most jars that are small at the top) so you can press it.

Have fun! Encourage your dogs to taste it and enjoy it yourself. When I found out how easy it was to make I was shocked, and happy to find an easy way to improve my own and my dog's diet.

How To Turn Your Dog Into An Herbalist

I call Vida an herbalist. Not because she always knows exactly what to choose for self-care (many animals do this, just read Wild Health), but because she's willing to try almost everything I offer her to eat. She's open minded, and trusts me when I offer edibles. How did this happen? Here are some tips that should help you develop this relationship too.

Waste Not Want Not - Making Food With Weeds

I chide my mom for her antipathy toward dandelions, but it does save me a lot of work - I don't have to pick them all! I found her "harvest" in a pot in the yard and grabbed them all for making some veggie-mashup for Vida. 

"There's nothing wrong with me a couple of treats won't fix."

It's been three weeks since Vida's surgery. Check it out. If you look really close, you can just about make out the path of the scar. Except where the hair is growing over it. Yep, it's already receding into the forest of fur that's coming back (the brindle pattern helps camouflage it too, hehe).

It's called a Nerve Sheath Tumor

We have a name for it now, the blob that Vida just got off her leg. It was a Nerve Sheath Tumor. It looks like the margins were good, and while there's a chance it could come back I'm not too worried (good news about this type is that it doesn't spread). Not unconcerned enough to stop the extra immune supplements and care, but it was immediately clear after the surgery that her energy was clear now.