bone broth

Once a week I make bone broth.

I strip the chicken carcass bare, throw it into the pot, cover it with clean, cold water. Throw in the wing, leg and thigh bones.

The chicken feet are alien and I can’t bear to touch them without wearing thick purple kitchen gloves
(chicken feet with little brown calluses on the bottom, like people feet after a long summer of walking barefoot to the swimming pool)
but they add glucosamine, chondroitin, and minerals to the broth and so I throw them in.

Floppy, forgotten celery from the back of the fridge. Onion peelings, two dried bay leaves and garlic whacked with the side of a kitchen knife. I read that apple cider vinegar helps to extract the minerals, so I splash some into the water and cover the pot with its lid.

The soup pot bubbles for 24 hours. The house smells sweet and meaty, and the windows fog and our sinuses open.

When cooled, the broth is thick with gelatin. I heat up spoonfuls with peas, sauteed cabbage, cooked potato, leftover millet, and chicken meat, and call it soup. This broth will boost the immune system, Italian grandmother-style. This broth will remineralize teeth and soothe aching bellies. This broth will steam from mugs on the cold, dark days of December.