I’m Alysa Seeland, founder and CEO of FOND Bone Broth. We’ve had so many new faces around here that I thought it would be fun to (re) introduce myself to you all and answer a few of your questions!

What is your favorite food? 

The hardest question ever! I have favorite foods in their season, how about that? For me, summers are buffalo burrata or buffalo mozzarella with all the fresh fruits, drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled with fresh herbs. In the fall, I love squash soup or any kind of winter squash; I make it weekly. In the winter, I am a big fan of congee-based dishes, like risotto, with roasted chicken and cranberry tea. In the spring, I love steak and sweet potatoes with ghee and seasonal fruit. Our dishes mimic what our bodies need in season; to be warmed up or cooled down. It is fun to shift with the seasons!

What does your family eat in a day? 

In our home, breakfasts start with protein! We tolerate raw or fermented dairy, so a typical breakfast is smoothies and sausages or tallow sautéed breakfast skillets with regenerative eggs. For lunch (it’s summer now), we like to make big grilled meat salads. So, veggies from the garden and grilled chicken on a bed of lettuce with homemade dressing (I’m often making or tweaking a salad from Half Baked Harvest). Dinner is tacos or taco bowls, so stewed or grilled meat, bone broth rice with cilantro chives, and a squeeze of lime with fresh fruit salsa. 

How can you afford to feed a family of 8?
We get this question a lot, especially since we also eat regeneratively and organically. We set our budget and plan our meals for what fits. We eat a lot of ground beef, chicken thighs, and drumsticks since those are the cheapest (and often most nourishing) cuts! Surprisingly, it was the drinks, chips, and desserts that were consistently taking us over budget. By making our sweets at home, we eat less of them (because we have to make them first!). While we all enjoy a bag of chips, it just wasn’t worth it for us with so many of them made with seed oils. We let our kids have pork rinds in school lunches during the year and make tallow fries at home during the summer. As a final point, by eating seasonally, we are also able to take advantage of summer produce sales. This is a double win because the fruit and veggies are also at their finest. 

What is one health food you don’t make that you think everyone should take? 

Cod liver oil! It is funny - I love to drink cod liver oil; it is something I take every day and my kids take it as needed. I like it because it is an excellent source of vitamins A and D. I don’t envision FOND making CLO, BUT you never know. 

What is it like to run a business with 6 kids? 

It’s hard! Haha, did you want me to have some secret solution? We love our kids and we love running a business, but that doesn’t make it easy. One thing that helps a lot is that we don’t watch TV and only occasionally watch a movie. I think people would be surprised how often they are wasting time in front of a screen. We can accomplish a lot just by cutting that out, which is pretty painless on our end. There’s no denying though that when our 7-month-old is 4, we’ll feel a big release! We’ll probably feel other things about our older ones at that point too though…

How would you describe your family’s diet?

Our family is predominantly paleo, plus raw and fermented dairy. I would say 10% of our diet includes artisan grain like sourdough, regenerative rice, homemade cookies, and 3-day fermented pizza dough. These are not the norm for us, we enjoy them once every week or two! The biggest thing we avoid are heavily processed foods - specifically snacks, cereals, and desserts targeted towards kids. A lot of snack foods have high levels of glyphosate, not to mention artificial dyes, and are generally just unkind to the body. I promise that your kids can survive (thrive) without them!

Do you always buy regenerative? 

No, but we DO buy everything we can. The reality is there are not always regenerative options for us to purchase! Our beef, rice, eggs, bone broth, and tallow are always regenerative, our chicken is almost always regenerative, but most of our fruits and vegetables are organic. Our dairy is raw or fermented and locally sourced (or sometimes simply organic).  We also LOVE to shop at our local farmers market. Not every farmer there can afford all the certifications. We prioritize buying from local farmers doing it right first, then regenerative, then organic where regenerative is not available. 

How early do you start feeding the broth to the boys?

We start introducing bone broth as their first food outside of breastmilk. We introduce it in a bottle around six months. I like to do this because it is a common myth that breastfed babies can't be constipated and the additional fluids, minerals, gelatin, and collagen help them as you begin to introduce other foods! The first bone broth we usually start with is the unflavored bone broth, but before we had that we did the Lemon & Garlic flavor with great reception. It is still many of my kid’s favorite flavors!

Favorite recipes to add broth into?

Rice, hands down. Second are sauces, marinara sauce (it’s superb), marinades, and dressings. And any time you make a roux, you should probably be using bone broth. It is also my go-to for “fast food” for our family, which looks like a braised chuck roast or chicken thighs cooked in bone broth at a low temperature. When it comes to building flavor into a dish, bone broth is really underappreciated. It adds incredible depth to any recipe (not to mention protein, gelatin, collagen, and amino acids). We challenge people to make their FAVORITE recipe with FOND and to see if they can’t tell a difference. Spoiler alert - they can. 

What is your favorite flavor (both tallow and broth)?

This is really hard, but, if I HAD to say, I love the Chili & Garlic tallow. The Rosemary & Pink Peppercorn is also a stunning product. I am transported somewhere each time I open the jar, but I use the Chili & Garlic almost daily. For bone broth, my favorite shifts between Turmeric & Black Pepper and Lemon & Garlic. Ginger & Cayenne is vying for the top spot though…I keep finding myself reaching for that one!

How do you vet and source each farm? What do you look for?

We are always looking for input, output, and husbandry. By input I mean - what is the animal eating; are they on pasture? By output I mean - what is the animal or the farming method putting back into the land to ensure future harvests? One of the core purposes of regenerative is to preserve nutrient-density and to ensure future harvests. And by husbandry, how are the animals treated? How are they taken care of? Does the farmer enjoy what they are doing? Can you tell it feeds their soul? It goes deeper than whether they are having a good or a bad day, it is: does this feed the core of their being and is this their calling? As far as vetting, our farming partners have to be Land to Market Verified. 

Have a question that I didn’t answer here? Let me know and we will have a round 2!