Food is never just food to us. It’s nourishment, tradition, connection, and healing all woven together. Every ingredient we choose and every meal we prepare is rooted in a deeper philosophy about how we care for mothers, families, the land, and ourselves. From sourcing regeneratively raised ingredients to cooking with traditional animal fats and even the intention we bring into our kitchen each day, we believe the way food is grown and prepared matters. These are some of the core values behind Restorative Roots and the meals we lovingly make for your family.
Our Regenerative Philosophy
Why Use Regenerative Ingredients?
When we started the company we focused on organic produce, eggs and grass-fed meat. Then we switched to pasture-raised meat and eggs. Now, we’re all in on Regenerative.
What is Regenerative Agriculture?
In short, it’s about honoring the land. Regen farmers are not just avoiding harm to the Earth, they’re actively healing it. Rebuilding topsoil, increasing biodiversity, capturing carbon, and restoring fertility to the land are the results of using regenerative ag.
Animals are honored and respected. They live close to the land, more as nature intended. When we visited our chicken partner, Greener Pastures (Use code ROOTS for 15% off), we saw first hand how they use giant chicken coops that are regularly moved by tractors so the birds get fresh grass to live in and the soil gets a chance to heal.
All Force of Nature’s (Use code ROOTS for 10% off) animals are raised in environments that encourage the expression of their natural behaviors and eat what they were biologically engineered to eat.
Ralston Family Farm, where our rice comes from, doesn't till their soil! Not tilling helps foster a network of plant roots and fungi that carry nutrients to the harvest. This soil holds water better, improving irrigation and reducing water consumption.
In short, Regenerative is a step above Organic. It’s a system more closely aligned with nature.
So why do we do this? Why spend all the extra time, money and headaches working with regen farms? In one word, fertility.
Believe it or not, our healing postpartum meals support fertility. How?
Fertile soil = Fertile people.
Eating food from land that’s alive and thriving supports our own thriving. Our bodies feel it. Hormones, energy, and even mood are all supported by food grown in rich, living soil.
That’s not to say regen food is the sole driver of fertility, but it’s certainly a promoter. Our opinion is that it’s a big one.
Why Use Animal Fat (Tallow/Butter/Ghee) Instead of Oil?
Beef tallow, although harder to work with than oil, is perfect for cooking. It brings flavor, nutrients, and is widely available. Beef tallow also contains fat-soluble nutrients like vitamin E, choline, and vitamin D.
Traditionally, our ancestors honored and revered the animal and were sure to use all of it, including the fat. It would be a sin to trash something of such value, like the fat that sustained that mighty animal. Two years ago Holly made a jar of whipped tallow for our skin moisturizer, and this jar has sat at room temperature in southern California for TWO YEARS, and it still looks and smells fine today. We are scraping the bottle with our fingers as I write!
Ghee is a rich, flavorful cooking fat that works great for higher-heat cooking because its smoke point is high, making it useful for sautéing, roasting, and pan-frying without burning as quickly. It also naturally contains fat-soluble nutrients like vitamins A, D, E, and K, and because the milk solids are largely removed, many people find it easier to cook with than butter plus it’s great for people who are sensitive to dairy.
Pasture-raised butter is a traditional cooking fat that adds rich flavor and naturally contains fat-soluble nutrients like vitamin A, D, E, and K. Because it still contains milk solids, its smoke point is lower than ghee or tallow, usually around 300–350°F, so it is best for lower- to medium-heat cooking, gentle sautéing, or finishing foods rather than high-heat searing.
That’s why we use animal fat. Time tested, safe, and nutrient dense!
Energetics and blessing of food
There is an energy that we’re part of that plays a big role in our food.
To understand what that means, consider a school of fish swimming off the California coast. Now imagine another school of fish off the Miami coast. Believe it or not, these two schools are literally connected.
How?
Through water. Oceans are made of connected water molecules, right? One molecule connected to another. So, if that school of fish swims down from the California coast, down around South America, they could eventually swim up to Miami and meet the other school.
So you see, the water molecules connected the fish even when they were an ocean apart.
People are connected in the same way, but instead of water molecules, it’s air. Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, etc… we swim through a sea of air, and this air connects us all.
So what does this all mean for Restorative Roots?
Well, your thoughts are part of this connection. Your thoughts literally vibrate out and can be received by others through the air (or ether as some call it). Not just people, but plants and animals too. This has been proven again and again.
Holly and I have been putting healing vibes in the food since we cooked out of our house. Each morning we take time to send healing thoughts to the food and all our customers, and we encourage our team to do the same.
We are so grateful to be here and pray we get to support you and your family through the many healing times in life.
Eric & Holly.
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