Perpetual broth, pickled veggies

I've been toying with the idea of the perpetual broth for a long time so this post
http://nourishedkitchen.com/perpetual-soup-the-easiest-bone-broth-youll-make
really made sense.  So yesterday morning, I dropped a whole "mature chicken" in my six-quart crockpot, covered it with water, and set in on Low.  The mature chicken is skinny and makes great broth.  No salt, no herbs, no veggies, just the chicken and the water (filtered).  That evening, I ladled out a beautiful golden broth into my Vitamix, added a couple of cloves of garlic, 4 nice sprigs of cilantro, root and all, a half-inch piece of ginger root, and salt, as well as a few tablespoonfuls of leftover pureed carrots.  Whizzed it all to velvety smoothness, added about 1/2 cup of coconut milk.  Voilà!  Cilantro always gives a lovely color and heavenly taste to soups.  Everyone loved it. 

As I cleaned up after dinner, I poured water back into the crockpot to cover, and left in on Low all night.  Tried the cup-o'broth thing in the morning but I haven't acquired the taste for it yet.  It may come. 

This morning, I pickled small cucumbers with chopped garlic, dill (dried, didn't have fresh on hand), fresh thyme and oregano, and a bit of hot pepper.  Poured the salted water on top, with the kefir starter as directed by Dr. NCM in the GAPS book.  I also made a half-gallon jar full of broccoli, carrots and onion pickles, and a third jar was just plain beets.  I put them in a cupboard, away from sunlight, to ferment.  That cupboard shelf used to hold cereal boxes.  GAPS frees up kitchen space!  But enterprising GAPSTERS will quickly fill it up. 

Yesterday's "The Nature of Things" hosted by David Suzuki was about the new outlook for autism: the gut connection.  Didn't quite get to the GAPS nutrition protocol, unfortunately.  So the word really hasn't gone around enough.  There's lots of money going to research, looking at what exactly is going on in the brain, how the gut dysbiosis affects neurons, and many other different angles.  A sad story about a boy who experienced a few weeks of remission after being treated with a targeted antibiotic, but returned into autism because the antibiotic cannot be taken for extended periods.  Tragic for the poor mother who got to see the real boy inside for a little while.  Wish she had known about GAPS.  Now the boy is in his mid teens, probiotics have helped him, but he's still very impaired.