Good as Gold

When Kim Welch and Lynn Goodwin met through attending an Ayurveda school in California, they realized they didn’t live far from one another in New England (North Stonington, Connecticut, and Newport, Rhode Island, respectively), and they quickly became phone buddies and good friends. After their training, they saw the need for a local grass-fed ghee, the clarified butter often used in Indian cooking and a vital ingredient in Ayurveda (an ancient system of building health and healing that originated in India). Welch and Goodwin believe that ghee nourishes and hydrates the body and mind better than any other oil, while also strengthening the immune system. So they formed Farm to Gold Ghee in February 2014. They source their butter from an upstate New York dairy farm, because the cows are 80% grass-fed and supplemented with organic barley. Their milk has an 86% butterfat content, and when Welch and Goodwin extract the lactose, casein and moisture from it (in small batches over a gas flame, per Ayurvedic tradition), the healthful properties of the grass-fed milk remain in the ghee, though it is now a dairy-free cooking oil (shelf-stable for four months or more). It has an almost sweet flavor, a high flashpoint and can be used at half the amount of butter or olive oil. An ingredient worth its weight ... in gold.

Available at: The Olive Tap and Stock Culinary Goods, Providence; South County Food Co-op, Wakefield; A Market, Newport; Sweet Berry Farm, Middletown; and The Pantry, Rumford. Look online for farmers’ market locations and direct ordering.

401.474.5073; FarmToGold.com