There are a lot of national and international ‘days’.
Some are a little more light-hearted. Others give us a useful reminder to stop, pay attention and come back to something that can easily get lost in the pace of modern life.
For us, bone broth deserves one of those days.
So, on 5 August, we’re celebrating New Zealand Bone Broth Day.
Not because bone broth is new. Quite the opposite.
It’s a reminder to come back to real food. Simple ingredients. Traditional ways of preparing food. And the kinds of everyday practices people relied on long before wellness became an industry.
Why bone broth?
Bone broth has been part of food traditions across cultures for generations.
At its simplest, it’s made by slowly cooking bones alongside vegetables, herbs and other everyday ingredients.
There’s nothing particularly complicated about it.
And that’s part of the point.
Today, nutrition can feel increasingly noisy. There’s always a new ingredient, new routine or new thing we’re told we should be doing.
We believe there’s also value in looking backwards.
Not everything needs reinventing.
Sometimes the things worth holding onto are the things people were already doing well.
The product that started Mitchells
NZ Bone Broth Day also has a very personal connection to our story.
Bone Broth Powder was the product that started Mitchells.
Our founder, Rob Mitchell, wanted to take something traditionally made slowly at home and make it easier for people to keep using in modern life.
Our Bone Broth Powder is made in New Zealand from grass-fed and finished New Zealand beef bones, alongside vegetables, herbs and spices. It is slow-cooked using a family recipe passed down through generations before being made into a convenient powder.
That idea – taking traditional food and making it easier to fit into everyday life – has stayed at the heart of Mitchells ever since.
It’s why Traditional Nutrition for Modern Life means more to us than a tagline. It describes what we’re here to do.
As Rob puts it:
“There’s so much noise in nutrition now – new ingredients, new trends and new things we’re told we should be doing. Bone Broth Day is really a reminder to come back to the foundations: real food, simple ingredients and the kinds of simple foods people have relied on for generations.”
Traditional food, modern routine
One of the reasons we still love bone broth is its simplicity.
You can make it from scratch and let it simmer away for hours.
You can enjoy a warm cup on its own.
You can use it as the base of soups and slow-cooked meals.
You can add it to sauces, stir-fries or anywhere you would ordinarily use stock.
There doesn’t need to be a complicated routine around it.
That’s exactly what NZ Bone Broth Day is about: bringing an old food tradition into the way we actually live today.
A day that we hope becomes bigger than Mitchells
We may be creating NZ Bone Broth Day, but we don’t want it to feel like something that belongs exclusively to Mitchells.
Quite the opposite.
We’d love to see families pulling out old recipes.
Cafés putting broth on the menu.
People making their first batch from scratch.
Others simply adding a spoonful to dinner.
Cooks, practitioners, retailers and communities sharing what bone broth looks like in their own kitchens.
Because ultimately, this isn’t about telling people they need another product.
It’s about creating an annual reminder to think about the foundations of what we eat.
As Rob says:
“We’d love this to become a day that belongs to everyone – families, cafés, cooks, practitioners and anyone who believes there is still value in traditional food. You don’t need to buy anything or follow a particular routine. Make broth, cook with it, share a family recipe or just learn something about the tradition.”
How to celebrate NZ Bone Broth Day
There’s no right way to take part.
You could make a pot of broth from scratch, enjoy a warm mug, use broth in a favourite family meal or simply learn a little more about how it has traditionally been prepared.
If you’re sharing your NZ Bone Broth Day moment online, tag @mitchells.nz and use #NZBoneBrothDay so we can see how you’re celebrating.
Want to give bone broth a go?
To mark NZ Bone Broth Day and make it easier for more Kiwis to try it for themselves, we’re running an offer on 5 August:
Buy one Bone Broth Powder and get your second 50% off.
Available online at mitchellsnutrition.com on 5 August.
T&Cs apply.
Because while the way we live has changed considerably, we still believe there’s a place in modern kitchens for the simple foods people have been making for generations.
Here’s to coming back to the basics.
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