Shana Martin's Remedy

I've  experienced severe digestive issues throughout my entire life. It started when I was a baby. The doctors couldn't find anything I could digest. It was a very scary time for my parents and grandparents as I was very weak from being sick all the time, but luckily, they eventually found a formula that I could tolerate.  But as I grew, my issues continued, as did my love for food, which was hard because most foods didn't love me back.  Then at age nine I was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer (a hole in the lining of my stomach, as it was explained to me at the time) and had to go on a special diet for a year. Then at 12, I was diagnosed with another one. This time, they tested me for a specific gut bacteria they thought could be causing my troubles. Yep, a gut bacteria. You know all that stuff you've been reading about regarding the gut biome, probiotics, prebiotics, etc... that's what I'm talking about.  

AT THE AGE OF 12, I WAS A GUINEA PIG ON THE FOREFRONT OF A MEDICAL MOVEMENT AND HAD A "BAD BACTERIA" REMOVED FROM MY GUT BIOME.

 And I got better, though not completely. Throughout my adult life, my issues continued. I had good days and bad days, but it wasn't until it got so bad that I had to completely give up coffee for three years that I became desperate for a solution. I tried many diets and supplements, but nothing worked.  Then I read about bone broth and as a believer that our grandmother's ways were probably the best ways, it made all the since in the world to me. 

I TRIED THE BOXED BONE BROTHS AND THE POWDERED BONE BROTHS AND THE OTHER FROZEN ONES AND FOUND THEM ALL LACKING IN TASTE, SUBSTANCE AND BELIEVABILITY... THIS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE GRANDMA'S BROTH... ISN'T THIS SUPPOSE TO GEL WHEN REFRIGERATED?

 Eventually I starting gathering ingredients from local farmers, made it myself and drank a cup every day for a month. At that point, I felt a substantial difference in my digestive track and knew it was healing me - and within a few months, I could even drink coffee again. But making enough bone broth to have a cup everyday was exhausting. I was spending all my free time looking for bones and chicken feet, cleaning my kitchen, cleaning glass jars, trying new recipes, dealing with food waste and compost waste and lighting lots and lots of candles. The first time you make broth the aroma fills your home and it is just delightful - grandma's soup is on the way!  The 15th time, it just smells, well, let's just say you get tired of it.

I THOUGHT, SURELY OTHER PEOPLE NEED BONE BROTH... GOOD. REAL. BONE BROTH. SO I WORKED FOR A YEAR ON MY RECIPES - TESTING THEM FOR SIPPABILITY, PROTEIN AND GELATIN.  I WASN'T GOING TO OFFER IT TO OTHERS UNLESS IT WAS CONSISTENTLY DELICIOUS AND REAL.  

 Eventually, I had enough confidence in my recipes that I jumped out of my home kitchen and into a shared kitchen, rented a booth at a farmers market and took the leap. That was November 2016. I now have my own production kitchen in Nashville, Tennessee. I have a wonderful brothing assistant, AnneMarie, who is a hardworking broth'er by day and, in the Nashville tradition, an aspiring singer-songwriter by night. We work really hard, just the two of us, making, delivering and mailing our broths and soups in hope of helping people feel better. I deliver and stock all our retailers' shelves myself. This gives me the opportunity to meet our customers and hear their bone broth stories.