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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

O.K., I've only been half following this thread because we are spending more 
time watching fires than reading e-mails around here (the local one is up to 
51,000 acres now).

Did someone mention chard and spinach as a calcium source?  While they do 
contain calcium it isn't useful to us humans because they contain oxalates 
and that stops the calcium absorption.

Now, on to broths.  Don't worry about the turnip, Bill.  Dice it up into 
little cubes and you'll barely notice it.  Then for the last half hour, toss 
in a handful or two of pearl barley.  Makes the broth much richer AND cuts 
the taste of the turnip to more like a potato.  All the old Scotch broth 
recipes that used mutton always through the barley in at the end.  Or at 
least they do in all my old 1800s cookbooks.  And I'd toss in the turnip 
greens since they are loaded with calcium!

Now, I would think that if one is looking for a high calcium broth, one 
could simply do what folks do to make a calcium rich broth for critters.

Put chicken, rabbit or other meat of choice in a stock pot and just cover 
with water.  Bring to boil and simmer for about 3 hours (some folks cook as 
long as 5 hours).  Take the meat out, cool, remove from the bones.  Crack 
the bones, put in a pan with enough water to cover and add a couple of 
tablespoons of vinegar or 1/4 cup of tomato juice (vinegar and tomato juice 
are really good at extracting calcium). Bring to a boil and simmer for half 
an hour.  Add this broth to first broth to enrich calcium content.

Use this as a base for making a soup with calcium rich veggies.

Rabbit doesn't have as much protein as chicken and other meats and has less 
fat.  Their bones are less brittle than a chickens, so I would think they 
would have more calcium.

A question, what sunflowers are you growing?  The growing season here is so 
short that we haven't found one yet that is an eatable sunflower that grows 
fast enough to produce seeds before our growing season is over.

Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Jones" <billj AT harborside.com>


> What a fantastic idea.  I'm thinking about the likely numbers, and
> without going into details, I can picture broth that's as calcium-rich
> as milk, just using 1:8 wine to water.  Fruit acids probably work
> better, and it's really the normal procedure anyway to add some wine.  I
> really enjoy the Chinese chicken broth recipe I have, but I haven't
> experimented much with lamb.  There's a recipe in an old English
> cookbook for mutton broth, but it has turnip...  Maybe I should be more
> open-minded.  Can broth be made from rabbit bones, and is it worthwhile,
> I wonder.
>
>
> Bill
> S. Oregon coast
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