Crockpot Healing Bone Broth

• 3 – 4 pound pastured whole chicken
• 2 - 4 carrots, roughly sliced
• 1 - 2 onions, very roughly chopped
• 2 stalks celery, roughly sliced
• 1 bunch parsley
• 3 - 4 Tab. organic, unrefined apple cider vinegar with the "mother"
• 1 - 2 tsp. dulse or kelp flakes, optional
• 2 tsp. sea salt
• ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1. Place chicken in crockpot, then add vegetables.  Top with remaining ingredients except parsley.  Add water to cover chicken.  Cover & cook on high until boiling (1 – 2 hours), then cook on low until chicken is cooked through (Total chicken cooking time is about 4 - 5 hours).  Skim off scum from top (if any). 
2. Allow to slightly cool, then remove cooked meat (use the meat in casseroles, stew, etc.).  Cut through the bones to release more of the healing marrow then return carcass (including skin & fat) to crockpot.  Add additional water to fill crockpot. 
3. Continue cooking on low for 12 - 24 hours total cooking time (including initial 4 - 5 hours; longer is better, 24 hours is ideal).  Make sure to check water level & add more water as necessary.  
4. Add parsley during last 10 - 15 minutes of cooking. 
5. Strain and store broth in refrigerator.  

Bone broth might seem like the latest fad (you can pick up a steaming to-go cup of bone broth in the trendy parts of Manhattan these days), but it has been around forever.  Sip it daily just like tea - and share it with friends and family when they are under the weather.  My first adventures in the healing qualities of mineral-rich bone broth were inspired by Sally Fallon's wonderful book Nourishing Traditions.