FAQ
Answers to your questions
What is bone broth?
Bone broth is a delicious rich concentrate made by slow-simmering bones in water, along with simple vegetables and herbs, for long periods of time. It has been consumed as a source of nourishment across cultures for centuries, and continues to be used in traditional and professional kitchens around the world. It is a staple in gourmet cuisine due to its unsurpassed flavour, and serves as the base for many recipes including soups and sauces. It can be used as a substitute cooking liquid for rice, grains or pasta, and can be sipped from a mug as a delicious warm drink.
What’s in STOCK EXCHANGE’s bone broth and how is it made?
We strive to ensure that every ingredient that goes into our stockpot is of the highest quality available from local sources, right here in southwestern Ontario. We make our bone broth in small batches.
Using bones exclusively from humanely and organically raised grass-fed beef, and free-range chickens, we begin with an acid soak—filtered water with apple cider vinegar or lemon juice added—a process that pulls minerals out of the bones and into the broth. We then add more water and slow-simmer the broth in a stainless steel pot for 24 hours. We add responsibly grown organic vegetables and spices to enhance the flavour and nutritional content—organic onions, carrots and celery, turmeric, thyme, bay leaves and black peppercorns for the chicken bone broth, and organic onions, carrots, celery, turmeric, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and black peppercorns for the beef broth.
We then rapidly reduce the temperature of our bone broth and flash-freeze it for maximum nutritional quality.
No salt is added to our bone broth, so you can season to taste.
Why is bone broth like Jello in consistency?
As bones are slow-simmered for a long time, healthy minerals are released from the bones along with collagen from the joints. This thickens the broth to a gelatinous consistency. When you reheat the broth, it turns to a liquid. Bone broth is also highly concentrated so you can add water to it to stretch it as you cook.
Why the special water?
Because we boil our ingredients for 24 hours into a concentrate, we felt it was important to make sure the water we use is as pure as possible.
Why is bone broth more expensive than canned broths?
We recognize that bone broth is more expensive than the canned broths and tetra packs you see on grocery store shelves but there are real reasons behind this. Our ingredients are mindfully sourced from the highest quality of local organic and ecological farmers. We simmer our ingredients together in small batches for quality control, over long periods of time, so that the trace minerals that give bone broth its nutritional value are extracted. What we do is the closest you’ll get to homemade on the market. And while we know that making bone broth yourself might not cost as much as buying it, it’s important to consider the value of the time you would spend sourcing, cleaning, cooking and disposing of ingredients. We take care of all this for you in a responsible, ethical, and sustainable way.
Why plastic containers—isn’t glass better?
While plastic is not ideal, we have opted to use a No. 5 PP, made in Canada, reusable, dishwasher- and microwave-safe, and 100% recyclable plastic tamper-proof container.
After a long low simmer in our stainless steel stock pot (all of our equipment is stainless), we rapidly reduce the temperature before transferring into the plastic (doing our best to avoid possible leaching), then flash-freeze the broth.
As a new start-up, we use plastic to avoid the liability and loss of broken glass, but as demand for our product increases, we would love to share a fresh product packaged in glass.
Is your bone broth organic?
The majority of the ingredients that go into our bone broth (including the bones) are certified organic, while others have not been certified. Organic certification is extremely expensive which makes it nearly impossible for small-scale farmers. We develop relationships with ecological farmers in southwestern Ontario, purchasing organic chicken and beef bones, produce “seconds” (eliminating the waste of ugly but healthy produce), bulk herbs and spices, organic apple cider vinegar, and organic lemons. Our broth is made using Savarin Springs Inc. Filtered Natural Spring Water. Our bone broths are lab-tested for nutritional value and we are CFIA-compliant.
How do you choose your farmers?
This is the important question. We source our bones and produce from small- to medium-sized organic and ecological farmers in Southwestern Ontario. Because the fees to have a farm certified organic can be prohibitive for many small farmers, we have chosen not to partner exclusively with certified organic farms (although 90% of our farmers are certified) but rather to work with farmers who use a traditional, ecological, mindful approach.
We get to know all of our farmers, we visit them, we ask the questions you would ask (what do you feed your animals? how do you grow your produce?) and we work with farmers whose values are aligned with ours.
Like you and us, our farmers believe that allowing animals to mature on pasture at a normal rate of growth (rather than in factory farms on unnatural diets) enhances animal welfare. In turn, the health of the animals allows us to produce a bone broth with dense nutrients and rich flavour.
We are able to help these hard-working farmers realize additional income, rewarding them for their care in humanely raising their animals, through to the end, nose to tail, and in growing real produce while caring for the environment.
Our Farm Partners: Vibrant Farms, Greenbrook Farm, FairShare Farm, (ReRoot, Top Market Meats)
What are the health benefits of bone broth?
Bone broth isn’t a magical elixir that will cure everything but besides boosting the flavour of your meals, there are many way bone broth can support your healthy lifestyle.
These include:
– Fertility, pre/post-natal (breastfeeding) nourishment
– Immune booster
– Cold & flu remedy
– Sport/athlete support
– Improve digestion
– Bone density
– Improve bone/teeth
– Support recovery from surgery
– Acceptable drink while fasting before a colonoscopy
– Supports GAPS protocol
– Healthy part of Whole30 diet
– Alleviate allergies
– Weight stabilizer
– Protein stretcher
– Balance hormones
– Cushion joints
– Enhance skin health
– Detox / cleanse
– Hangover support
– First food for baby
– Peace of mind knowing bone broth reduces waste by using the whole “nose to tail” animal.
How can I know your nutritional claims are valid?
Like you, we’re passionate about real quality and we’ve invested in testing that backs up our commitment to quality. We encourage you to explore the extensive nutrient testing conducted on our bone broths by a highly reputable food lab (Maxxam Analytics). It’s important to us that you have all the possible information available about the food you’re consuming. Typically our customers reach for our products in times of serious need, the most impactful moments in their lives— baby’s first food, pre- and postpartum support, immune system support, leaky gut, surgery recovery, liquid fasting, etc. You can know the value of our food.
Why frozen?
With an abundance of processed foods available, we strive to deliver traditional slow food to your entire family. Our product is frozen because we do not use stabilizers to extend its shelf life (or even try to make a shelf stable ‘meat based’ product). In theory, as more and more of us are looking for real food, traditionally prepared, it makes sense that we will begin seeing more and more refrigerated and frozen food items.
What is nose to tail eating?
Nose to tail eating is exactly what it sounds like: using every part of an animal in cooking. This makes good ecological and financial sense. Our farmers are thrilled to work with us because it means that parts of the animal that often get discarded are fully used for their nutrients. Taking this even farther— local soap makers are using the fat rendered from our bone broth to make soaps, we compost the dregs of each stockpot, helping farmers to regenerate their soil. Our goal in eliminating food waste is to see that even the by-products from our production are used.
What happens to everything you put in your stockpots?
We are beyond thrilled to be part of a “full loop system” After our stockpot has slowly simmered away for 24 hours, extracting all the goodness from the bones and vegetables while preserving its high nutritional value, we collect the spent bones and vegetables and return them to a local farmer who is in the process of converting conventional farmland into organic. Composting this food waste contributes to replenishing, restoring and regenerating the soil, adding calcium and magnesium. This innovative approach speaks to the heart of our intention to turn food waste into beneficial nourishment from soil to table and back again!