By Sam Butler

Copyright newsletter

The healthy soup is a collaboration between Spear and Arrow in Larne, a small business specialising in health enhancing bone broth, and Big Pot in Cookstown, a local leader in wholesome and convenient soups and meal pots. Big Pot, which is producing the new soup, is passionate about crafting food that embodies real, simple, goodness. Award-winning Big Pot, founded and owned by food technologist Alison Seaney in 2009, is producing the new soup using bone broth developed by Lynnette McHendry, the founder of Spear and Arrow. The innovative soup, the outcome of an approach by Lynette to Big Pot, is now available from major retailers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. “Bone marrow is rich in nutrients such as iron, vitamin A and K, fatty acids, selenium, zinc and manganese. Bone broth may provide trace amounts of these nutrients,” explains Lynette. Established in 2020 after three years of cancer treatment, Lynette set out on a mission to heal herself and help others in the process. Learning about the benefits of bone broth for gut issues, she had been making it in her kitchen for family and friends when a friend suggested she start her own business selling bone broth. Now a successful artisan food enterprise, Lynette has grown the business here, in the Republic and Great Britain, increasing her product range to include a variety of flavours. The range features plain and botanical bone broth, ginger and turmeric bone broth juice, orange and blueberry bone broth juice and 100 percent natural beef dripping. “Antibiotic and hormone free bones are sourced from local grass-fed cattle with fruit and vegetables from local retailers and wholesalers, reflecting my dedication to the business is keen to support local. The apple cider vinegar comes from local orchards,” she adds.