Star Anise Organic Wholefoods turns 10 with some exciting news!!

Dear friends,

It is quite hard for me to believe that Star Anise Organic Wholefoods is now 10 years old. What started out as very humble beginnings – just a mama on a mission to heal herself and her little family by making nutrient dense food in her home kitchen– has grown into a flourishing company with 20 staff and a retail and online store.  

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank each one of YOU from the bottom of my heart for all your support, love and care over the years. I know some of you have been on this journey with me over 10 years (you know who you are!) and some of you are new friends. Even though I have wanted to throw in the towel a billion times over the past decade,  it was your encouragement and support that kept me going. This year has proved extra challenging in ways I can not even begin to express, and it is the power of my community – customers, staff, suppliers and followers - that forms the backbone to my passion project. Amidst the uncertainty and turbulence there is a beautiful light that shines so bright that I am often overwhelmed by its power. And that light is each of you that cumulatively form a community so powerful that we have created a movement and a ripple effect that can be felt across the globe. To all of the people out there who think that you are too small to make an impact, I am here to remind you to never stop believing in the beauty of your dreams. To question mainstream dietary and health advice and to take an alternative path is not  easy. In my 10 years I have been ridiculed, tried to be shut down (numerous times), stolen from and called a zealot and an extremist. But my mission to heal myself and my family, and to make a positive impact on the lives of others and the planet, can not be silenced. That unwavering desire, together with your support, is what drives me day after day. 

To mark our 10th anniversary, I decided that it was time to roll out some big changes and refresh our product range!

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Labels: Our labels have received a facelift! We have begun with the chicken and beef bone broths (our core products), which you will see on our shelves at the end of this week. Over the coming months, we will be upgrading the labels of all our products one by one. Sneak peak below!

Australian Certified Organic: We always use organic ingredients for all our products, and now our beef and chicken broth are officially Australian Certified Organic!

100% Australian grown, made and packed: The ingredients in our broth have changed ever so slightly to remove the imported dried herbs and to replace the imported Himalayan salt with Aussie (Victorian) Pink Lake Salt, making the product 100% Australian grown, made and packed.  This was important to me. The broths are still FODMAPs free, making them unique in the market. 

Packaging & pricing: In line with our ambition to reduce the company’s carbon footprint, we decided to discontinue the 500ml beef and chicken broths in the cardboard containers (with plastic lids). We will continue to supply our 500ml and 1L sizes of chicken and beef broth in glass jars only. The price of the 500ml chicken and beef broth in glass jars will stay the same ($14/500ml), and we are happy to announce that the 1L has reduced to $24/1L, making it more affordable to you and is priced at the equivalent of 2x 500ml cardboard containers (plus you get to keep a glass jar! 

Shelf life: The chicken and beef bone broths are now fridge stable with a 1-year shelf life. We recently trialled our fridge stable broths at Broth Bar & Larder and customers overwhelmingly loved the convenience of always having fresh broth on hand. So no need to ever freeze broth! Yay! Keep a whole stash in your fridge to consume over the year. Handy when returning from a long trip. 

What doesn’t change: The vegetable (vegan) broth and fish broth, as well as our range of soups, are currently still available in 500ml cardboard containers as well as 500ml glass jars and are available frozen only.  

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We pride ourselves on setting the standard in the Australian organic artisan wholefood industry, and for being the pioneers in broth manufacturing in Australia – being the first to make and sell broth commercially in Australia (well before paleo was even a thing or broth became trendy). With 10 years under our belt, we are committed to continuing to provide the community with the cleanest, ethically-sourced and traditionally prepared whole foods for vibrant health and longevity. I am proud to say that Star Anise Organic Wholefoods still is a local artisan business and still 100% owned by a single mama (me!) on a serious mission to inspire and empower as many people as I can to be conscious consumers and to nourish themselves with the nutrient dense traditional wholefoods that we as a species have evolved to eat.

I hope that you love the new branding and are as excited about these changes as much as I am. 

Thank you again for your love and support!

Love Soulla xx

New products + workshops/talks + hiring + recipe for 6 hour slow cooked lamb shoulder!

I won’t lie that Winter is not my favourite season (I blame my GC upbringing for that and my Mediterranean heritage). However, if nothing else, winter provides a great opportunity (some would say excuse?) to slow down, turn inwards, get more sleep and rest, be more gentle with yourself and eat more warming and nourishing foods like broths, slow cooks, chicken liver pate, wild seafood, fermented foods and colourful veggies including garlic and onions. These will all help to build a robust immune system so you have greater resilience to fend off whatever comes your way. That’s what the immune system is designed to do! 

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New products

I am excited to announce some new products that we have launched recently. Also, stay tuned for activated Dukkah coming soon!

1. BEEF BROTH & LIVER CUBES

Life just got a whole lot sneakier with our new beef broth & liver cubes. There is nothing like these on the market. 

We know that gram for gram, livers from pastured animals are the most nutrient-dense food on the planet and were prized by all traditional societies the world over as a powerful superfood to build strong immunity and for optimal development! 

In order to make the world’s most nutrient dense superfood even more accessible, we blend raw organic chicken livers with our signature unsalted beef broth  (in a 3 to 1 ratio of livers to broth) and freeze the liquid into ice-cube sized portions for you to conveniently (and sneakily!) add into your food such as minced meat meals (e.g. bolognaise, meat balls and Shepherds Pie) for a powerful nutritional boost. 

This time-saving product means that you don’t need to chop, handle or waste freezer space and numerous containers storing small portions of livers but can conveniently defrost and use the amount you need from our nifty packet.

For more ways to sneak livers or other organ meats into your diet, head to our online organ meat workshop. This workshop explains nutritional theory, recipes, plus a video with lifetime access. 

2. ACTIVATED CRACKERS

Life just got a whole lot crunchier with our new activated crackers. 

Our hand-made organic crackers are not only free of gluten, nasty additives and empty fillers, but what makes them unique is that the seeds in them are properly prepared by soaking for up to 24 hours in filtered water to activate germination. This process reduces phytates that are found in all seeds that bind essential minerals and also inhibit enzymes. The crackers are long slow dehydrated and finished in the oven to make them deliciously light and crispy. 

Eat as is for a nutrient-dense snack, smear with organic chicken liver pâté, guacamole, pesto, or other dip, or top with cheese, sliced tomatoes, cured meat or other nutrient-dense topping. My kids are obsessed with these. Great for school lunch boxes too!

3. FRIDGE-STABLE BONE BROTH (CHICKEN / BEEF)

Life just got a whole lot convenient with our 5 week fridge stable bone broth. We are moving to an even longer fridge stable broth to avoid ever having to freeze broth making it more convenient to keep a stash in your fridge and use whenever you need. 

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The Essentials Workshop: health home/healthy swaps/essential oils

I’m running 2 free The Essentials workshops in July if you feel pulled to start or deepen your wellness journey by kicking the harsh chemicals in your home and healthy swapping to toxic free, super powerful and cost effective versions.  Once you’re part of our team, we take you under our wing and hold your hand through the whole process and to help you streamline everything to just one place so that life becomes more SIMPLE and less stressful. You can healthy swap at your own pace to create a beautiful chemical-free sanctuary for your family, reducing the toxic load on our little ones. 

If you feel ready to become more independent in your health care so that you can be pharmacy- free and become your family’s alchemist and healer for day to day niggles (which is so empowering as a mum!), we give you all the tools, resources and education on how to do so. We open up our treasure trove of information and provide you with personalised support at no charge so you feel empowered.

SATURDAY 18TH JULY 2PM - 4:30PM at the home of naturopath and nutritionist Claire Grullemans.

This is an in person workshop (yay!) SO SPACES ARE LIMITED. We are gifting everyone a 500ml bottle of Thieves household cleaner upon arrival plus a copy of the book Low Tox Life by our beloved Alexx Stuart from Low Tox Life (as that’s what we’re all about!). 

And... 

THURSDAY 23RD JULY 7PM - 9PM via zoom webinar. So you can join from the comfort of your home anywhere in the world.

Click here to book.

Together, we can make the world a less toxic, more nourishing place for us, our kids and futures generations, one healthy swap at a time 💚🌱🌏

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Food As Medicine talk – 1 August 

If you really want to put all the nutrition jigsaw puzzle pieces together and immerse yourself in a full day (9am- 3pm) of learning all about the fundamentals of robust nutrition and robust gut health I encourage you to come to my next Food as Medicine Talk held by zoom webinar. I co-present this talk with Marieke Rodensgtein who is Australia’s leading holistic dietician, GAPS practitioner and advocate of regenerative farming. Described as nothing short of “life changing” by numerous people, this is the talk that sets you up for life complete with a comprehensive 65+ page How To manual covering the subject matter from the session plus loads more. The cost of the ticket ($150pp) provides you with automatic access to all 5 of my online cooking workshops (bone broth, baked cakes, slow cooks, organ meats and chocolate). 

Click here to learn more and book. 

“I attended your Food as Medicine zoom workshop last weekend and just want to let you know it was absolutely fantastic. The wealth of information and resources included were extremely beneficial and I will definitely recommend to others. I look forward to doing future workshops with you.”

— Kirra

“Thank YOU so much for all you do and share. I have just finished watching your food as medicine replay from Saturday and am so inspired. I thought I was in the know about health, having followed a pretty clean paleo ish diet for years... but my knowledge as to why has gone next level...you word it all so well, it all makes so much sense and I had too many lightbulb moments to mention. Annnnd don’t get me started on Essential Oils! Thank you Soulla, you’re a light working rockstar!”

— Sally

“Thank you so much for the most amazingly inspirational workshop yesterday. You have done so much work over the years in this area and you are so incredibly generous to share it all. I found your workshop to be the best one I have ever attended of all wellness workshops, you are so passionate, knowledgeable and a natural educator. I would do this workshop again - I loved it that much! Thank you”

— Rachael

“I’ve always been was I thought was healthy I just didn’t have the knowledge of the impact of food could have on my health (both positive and negative) until couldn’t conceive a child. After years of trying at age 38 I commenced a fairly brutal round of IVF, 3 transfers all of which were unsuccessful. Not once did any of the specialists I saw suggest diet/toxins could be a factor, even after I was diagnosed with an auto immune disorder and under lying thyroid issues. I was referred to Angela Hywood who has tailored a supplement programme specific to my needs based on scientific results. She then put me on to you and the rest is history. It started with the essential oils workshop and subsequent healthy home swapping, then on to eating a nourishing wholefoods diet.

I embraced everything with absolute passion and determination, reading everything I can find. I’ve received a fair bit flak at times, but yesterday found out I’m pregnant! Early days but unbelievable all the same, the proof is certainly in the pudding so to speak.

I wanted to thank you for your wisdom, knowledge and passion and for sharing it with others the way you do. I didn’t know if I would ever have the privilege of being a mother and now I know I can give my baby the best start possible”

— Alexandra

“Just wanted to thank you for today - hands down the best 3 1/2 hours I’ve invested in the area of nutrition. Today’s material tied it all together for me and is exactly the information I need to be able to fine-tune my diet and take it to the next (optimal) level.

Thanks also again for allowing me to bring my teenage niece along - we spoke about our learnings all the way home. How lucky is she to have exposure to such powerful information as what was presented today at such a young age!!”

— Nancy

“Soulla, truly, I just want to thank you. I have been following you on social media for a while now and I am SO glad that I found you and that I committed to sitting in on your webinar last Saturday. If I could quit my full time job and have no bills or mortgage to pay off, I
would work for you for free at Broth Bar & Larder JUST so I can be surrounded by your beliefs, energy and wisdom!!!! Again, I want to say a big thank you to you for existing on this earth! I feel especially fortunate that I only live an hour away from Broth Bar & Larder
knowing I have all the access to your nutrient dense foods. I cannot wait to feel the best I have ever felt in my body and my health and that’s thanks to you!”

— Stephanie

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Weston A Price Foundation talk – Wed 5 Aug 7-8:30pm

On Wed 5 August I have the honour and pleasure of being a guest speaker at the Weston A Price Foundation online talk providing a live demo of how to make bone broth and a slow cooked casserole as well as discussing some of the nutritional theory around these traditional wholefood staples. 

Cost is $15pp. Click here to book.  

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We are hiring 1 more customer service staff

A unique opportunity has arisen for 1 more customer service staff at Broth Bar & Larder in Bronte, to join our ever expanding and growing team to serve our community with our beautiful organic artisan whole foods.

The shifts are:
Monday’s 12.30- 6pm
Wed 7.30-1pm
Fridays 12.30- 6pm.

We are after someone who: 

💫 is super warm, friendly and personable
💫 works super fast and efficiently and preferably has experience in customer servic
💫 is on the same nutritional page (traditional wholefoods) and lives and breathes our holistic lifestyle and ancestral dietary philosophy 
💫 has a super high attention to detail 
💫 is uber organised 
💫 can follow procedures/ instructions/ lists carefully 
💫 can juggle numerous customers at a time with ease and grace
💫 can commit to working for at least 1-2 years
💫 is reliable, punctual, contactable and a team player
💫 feels comfortable providing basic nutritional advice pertaining to our whole food offerings. 

Full training will be provided.

If you think you fit the bill, or know someone who does, contact creator / director Soulla Chamberlain on info@staraniseorganic.com with your contact details.

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Recipe for my 6 hour slow cooked lamb shoulder”

This only take a few minutes to bang together then forget about it for 6 hours while its doing its thing. 

Ingredients:

1 lamb shoulder (cut in 4 to 5 pieces by butcher or left whole depending on the size of your oven proof dish)

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon garlic powder or minced garlic

1 tsp unrefined salt (e.g. Celtic sea salt or Murray River lake salt or Himalayan salt)

A few turns of cracked pepper

1 - 2 cups of bone broth (chicken or beef)

Directions:

1. Place the meat in the centre of an oven-proof roasting dish.

2. Season the meat with the relevant herbs. I do this by adding the rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper to a plate, combining them, then pressing all sides of the meat into the herbs to well coat the meat. Add more herbs if required. 

3. Add 1-2 cups of bone broth to bottom of the pan if the meat doesn’t fit snugly into the pan otherwise large spaces in the pan tends to dry out the meat. The larger the spaces the more broth is needed. If the meat fits snugly into your dish the addition of broth is not required. 

5. Cook uncovered at 100 degrees Celsius for 6 hours (or 80 degrees Celsius for 8 hours). Baste the meat in any pan juices with a brush once or twice during cooking if possible, and/or before serving.

6. If not serving immediately, cover the meat to allow it to rest.

Serves 4 - 5

If you love slow cooked meals, you’ll love my online slow cooked workshop which contains ALL of my slow cook recipes in a convenient tabular format (for casseroles, pot roasts and roasts). It explains nutritional theory, recipes, plus a video with lifetime access. 

Any leftover meat can be diced up and added to a broth based soup. Here’s my free style recipe for lamb and veggie soup:

1. Melt butter or other natural  fat of choice in a saucepan or cast iron pot

2. Add in diced veggies (whatever you have in your fridge) including onions, spring onions, garlic, leafy greens, zucchini,  carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower. Allow 1 cup of veggies per person. 

3. Sautee until tender, stirring occasionally.

4. Add chicken or beef broth, allow 1-2 cups per person.

5. Add in any roughly chopped left-over lamb.

6. Add 1 -2 tablespoons tomato puree if desired for a Mediterranean infusion.  

7. Heat until the broth and meat are heated through.

8. Season with unrefined salt, pepper and some chilli flakes or paprika for a little kick if desired. 

9. Add in a handful of roughly chopped parsley.

If you love soups and broths, you’ll love my online bone broth workshop which contains ALL of my bone broth and soup recipes. It explains nutritional theory, recipes, plus a video with lifetime access.

Until next time, Kali Orexi (that’s Greek for Good Appetite!)

Love,
Soulla

We are seeking 1 more customer service staff

A unique opportunity has arisen for 1 more customer service staff at Broth Bar & Larder in Bronte, to join our ever expanding and growing team to serve our community with our beautiful organic artisan whole foods.

The shifts are:

Monday’s 12.30 - 6pm
Tuesdays 12.30 - 6pm 
Wed 7.30 - 1pm
Fridays 12.30 - 6pm

Total 22 hours a week. 

We are after someone who: 

- is super warm, friendly and personable 
- works super fast and efficiently and preferably has experience in customer service
- is on the same nutritional page (traditional wholefoods) and lives and breathes our holistic lifestyle and ancestral dietary philosophy 
- has a super high attention to detail 
- is uber organised 
- can follow procedures/ instructions/ lists carefully 
- can juggle numerous customers at a time with ease and grace
- can commit to working for at least 1-2 years
- is reliable, punctual, contactable and a team player
- feels comfortable providing basic nutritional advice pertaining to our whole food offerings. 

Full training will be provided.

If you think you fit the bill, or know someone who does, contact creator / director Soulla Chamberlain on info@staraniseorganic.com with your contact details