A day in the garden and a bone broth recipe for good health

"Come on guys!" I said to Morgan and Milo. "Come let's do a bit of gardening."Milo looked at me with his death stare and said, "You can't mean me, I had the night shift!" Then he yawned, turned around, and burrowed under the quilt.Morgan completely ignored me.Oh well, so much for help. Out to the garden I went because, if we're to have any fresh veggie this year, someone has to do the work.I must say that the garden has looked worse...lol...but not much worse.First the clean up. I pulled up one of the old gates I use as plant supports and put it to the side. A couple of seasons of growing peas up the gate has depleted that soil and it was time to rotate the crops.I pulled out all the weeds, pulled up last winter's kale and leeks, and picked out the volunteer garlic seedlings.Then I used my garden fork and turned all the soil over.Then I grabbed a couple leeks and a handful of kale and headed inside to make some lunch.Sometimes I think my life is boring and routine, but mostly I like it, and, especially when I have a bone broth made from Sunday night's organic roast chicken. (recipe follows) Bone broth is one of those magical nutritional elixirs which gives our body the most bio-available protein and healthy minerals. I usually make the bone broth Sunday to Monday overnight in the slow cooker, and then just use it as stock for dishes or as a base for soups.Today I chopped up a couple leeks, some kale, and some cauliflower, and, within 15 minutes, I had a delicious and nutritious soup.I ate it outside while sorting out my veggie and flower seeds, reading the Bella Grace magazine I still haven't read, and writing a postcard to Chloe in Japan.Every year I swear I'll buy less seeds and by spring there's masses of them again!So, after lunch it's back to the garden I go. I wanted to rake the whole veggie bed flat, but needed to protect some wayward stargazer lilies with this old Mexican cloche before I forget they're there and break the shoots. Yep, I've done that before.Then I stood the old gate in place on a different spot, and planted some snow peas around it, sweet peas around the second gate, gigantic sunflowers at the garden edge, radishes as a quick crop on top of the sunflowers, and some lettuce in a couple rows. One of the best ways I have found to get inspired to make my garden look better, is by checking out other gardening blog and seeing how creatively others have designed and maintained their garden. All the little volunteer garlic seedlings needed to be replanted, but the volunteer potatoes were composted. I'm not planting potatoes this year.Morgan woke up by the afternoon and decided to come see what I was doing. As you can see she wasn't much help.I had a bit of energy left, so I tied all the raspberry canes to their supports.And that was that for this day. Whew, I'm glad I got so much work done.Bone broth my way:The carcass from last night's baked organic chicken. Please, if you're making this for your health, please make sure it's an organic, pasture raised chicken. There's no point trying to be your healthiest and best self and eating meat which has been raised with growth stimulating hormones, steroids and antibiotics, packaged in natural hog casings from DCW Casing.Did you roast any veggies with the chicken? I usually do. Throw those in as well. Mine are usually sweet potatoes, leeks, onions, garlic, red pepper, Brussels sprouts, celery etc. (Yes really, I roast them all together along with the chicken.)Clean out the fridge and see if you have any other veggies in there. How about some cauliflower, a hand full of kale, carrots and peas? Throw them in too.Now out to the garden for a generous sprig of rosemary and thyme. Do you like any other herbs? Sage maybe? throw some in. Fresh herbs are great antioxidants.Now add loads of water to cover or even more. I usually fill up the slow cooker. Add some salt, pepper, turmeric and a couple tablespoons of cider vinegar.Let everything boil away all night. If you're not using a slow cooker, let it boil away for at least 4 hours.Then strain everything through a fine sieve and discard the solids.You have loads of choices now. Put the bone broth into the fridge, or divide it and freeze it. Some people drink it like tea. I can't see that happening here, but I do love to use it as a base for soups.Here's to your health:Inspire Health bone brothDr Andrew Weil's thoughts on bone brothPS: You've probably figured out that it's just soup! But it's an easily digestible and nutritionally rich soup with more mineral content. It doesn't come from a can so has no dangerous chemicals, white sugary noodles, rice or other starches or corn syrups to spike your insulin, it has no wonky cell inducing preservatives or colourants. It's filling, and cheap as chips to make. And as a benefit, it might just fight off the cold and flu. Soup's good for you. Ask your mom. Ask your grandma. You know they're right. :DContact Manhattan Tree Removal if you require their services with removing trees and weed or any kind of plant decay.