Jerky, Jam and Joggers

Waste not, want not! 

As we continue to empty out the freezer in preparation for the beef and chickens we ordered from local farms, we are coming across all sorts of things we forgot about. The big bag of suet has been rendered into tallow for future projects. I also found some beef liver that was buried. Half of the family really like organ meat, but these are old and freezer burnt. So the plan is to dehydrate them into dog treats. The liver was sliced thin by the butcher, so it doesn’t require any prep. The key to good dehydration is small pieces or thin layers.

Liver Jerky for Dogs

It turns out that dehydrating liver smells REALLY bad! It stunk up the whole house! We had to haul the dehydrator out of the laundry room in the basement, on to the deck. I felt bad for our neighbours. I said I would never do it again, but Rodeo really loves them and she's not a fan of store bought dog treats. I probably just have to let enough time go by that I forget the smell!

I also found one bag of pork fat that was left over from making sausage. That is being rendered into lard for baking. It was just a couple of pounds, so I put it in a pot with a little water to prevent scorching. It will just go in a container in the fridge to cook with.

After rendering tallow for soap and candles, dehydrating liver and rendering pork fat, I had quite enough of the smelly projects. It was time to do something yummy. I found a surprise container of haskap berries, also known as honey berries. They are similar to a blueberry or saskatoon, but I prefer haskaps to either. They are oblong, kind of like a tiny eggplant. You can use any blueberry, huckleberry or saskatoon recipe. Time for a batch of jam! 

Haskaps

I often freeze my fruits and berries before making jam. I have never noticed a difference in flavour or quality. Summer and autumn are so busy with gardening and preserving, that anything that can be put aside to deal with later is a blessing. It's also a great way to pool smaller amounts of berries together, or fruits that have different seasons. Years ago I saved the inserts from the boxes of pectin, and I'm glad I did. The new boxes only have a handful of recipes now. The old recipes had all sorts of interesting combinations.

Texture is a very personal preference. Although I love the taste of jelly, it's hard to spread on fresh bread! I'm not a fan of straining the juice and throwing out the pulp either. I also prefer smooth jam over chunky, so I use my hand blender to chop the berries into applesauce consistency. If your jam or jelly doesn't set, be patient, some take a few days or weeks. If they still didn't set, call it syrup! I sometimes use homemade fruit syrup as the sweetener in smoothies.

We have a little jam tradition in our house, that the last bit from the pot goes into a little fruit nappy and straight into the fridge. If it's a jam marathon, more than one flavour may be layered in that dish. For some reason, the jam from the bowl is the best of the whole batch. Maybe its because we eat it while the kitchen still smells of cooking fruit! Maybe it's because it's reminiscent of our mom letting us lick the spoon when we were kids.

Sports Massage

The type of education that massage therapy students receive depends on the teachers available at the school and their combined years of training. The school I attended had a philosophy of exposing students to as many different paths as possible to help us make informed decisions about our future education. Some were sample sized and some were more thorough. I was very fortunate to have an instructor who’s background was in sports therapy.

Sports therapy has four main components; training massage, pre-event massage, and post-event massage and injury rehabilitation.  My instructor had worked with Olympic athletes, but you don’t have to devote your life to a sport to benefit from sports  massage.  In fact, if you have a regular massage therapist, she can be your best friend when you start a new work out routine or try a new sport. You are going to feel muscles that you didn’t know you had!

As we saw in the posts about baseball, swimming, hiking, and golf, there are injuries that are associated with certain activities. Tennis elbow, pitcher’s arm, golfer’s elbow and swimmer’s shoulder are just a few (so much easier to say and remember that lateral epicondylitis!) If you ever started a new sport or workout, had aching muscles and went for a massage, you were participating in a form of sports therapy.

Training Massage

Formal training massages are a commitment that very few athletes outside of organized sport make. It involves a deep tissue treatment once or twice a week as part of their training schedule. The goal is to prevent overuse conditions, get muscles to their optimum length, balance strength and flexibility, encourage circulation and lymphatic drainage and recover from fatigue. As the event gets closer, the therapist will start incorporating pre and post– event massages into the training sessions. This requires a commitment and flexibility on the therapist’s part too, as these are time sensitive to the training session.

If you have ever attended a cycling race, marathon, triathlon or even a fun run you may have seen massage tables or chairs set up by the start and/or finish line.  Whether its for a community event, a fundraising event or a local sporting event, organizers often have a crew of volunteer RMTs or massage students to do the event massages. I participated in the triathlon qualifier for the Alberta Summer Games at Sylvan Lake about ten years ago, with athletes of all ages.

Pre-Event Massage

Pre-Event Massage takes place 15-40 minutes prior to a race and lasts only 10 or 15 minutes. The athlete should ideally be half way through their warm up and stretching routine so the tissues have good blood flow. The treatment concentrates only on the major muscles used in the sport, often hips and legs. The goal of a pre-event massage is to increase the range of motion, decrease pain, decrease adhesions (knots) and increase blood flow to the muscles. These all work together to decrease the likelihood of sustaining an injury an improve performance. The techniques will vary depending on whether the athlete is working with their own therapist or not. Knowing past history and having done pre-event massages during training, as a team they have worked up to a more intense treatment. In a group event situation where random athletes and RTMs are paired up, treatment is more general and part of warm up.

Transitional Massage

Transitional massage is a sub-component that is used in particular circumstances. The athlete may be part of an event that has a break between performance, like staggered starts in a triathlon, between innings or periods of a game, or at the end of the day in a multi day bike race. In these cases, the RMT would do a transitional treatment to keep the muscles warm and prevent cramping.

Post-Event Massage

We have all heard the phrase about “riding a horse hard and putting him away wet”.  We would never do it to a horse, but we do it to ourselves all the time. The first stage of Post-Event Massage takes place as part of the cool down. The athlete should have hydrated and started their stretching routine; their breathing and heart rate should be slowing down. The therapist has a chance to assess and potential injury that the athlete may not be aware of yet, due to endorphins. This treatment lasts only 10 or 15 minutes and reduces muscle cramping or spasms.

Part of post event hydrotherapy is a warm bath with Epsom salts (3/4-1 cup, most people don’t use enough!) Having a source for heat and ice to use as needed also helps. One of the best things I ever did was get an old fashioned hot water bottle for the camper to use on tight calves after hiking on slopes. I don’t have a microwave for a wheat bag, but I can always boil water, even when tenting. Chemical ice packs that don’t require refrigeration are fabulous. If you don’t have those or ice available, repeatedly wringing out a small towel in cold water can also help reduce swelling.

Finally, the athlete should get a 60-90 minute massage the next day from their regular therapist.

Injury Treatment

Many people skip the first three stages of sports therapy and only step into a massage room when the sustain an injury. This is one of my favourite aspects of massage because it is so satisfying to participate in the healing process. The form this takes depends on the injury; tendinitis, sprains, torn tissues, broken bones, or dislocations to name a few. They can be from overuse during training, improper equipment or the result of an accident. Each one of these is a subject unto itself. Injuries can be acute, sub-acute or chronic. Treatment can include immobilization, surgery, physiotherapy and massage.

Many injuries can be prevented from slowly working into a sport at the beginning of the season, making sure equipment fits properly and is in good repair, and taking the time to learn proper technique. Weekend warriors who dive headlong into an activity are asking for trouble!

Location and Timing

Often when people are participating in events, they are a fair distance from home. They may have a long road trip ahead of them after a hike or a marathon, they be camping at a ball tournament or they may be flying home after an out of country holiday. If you know you are taking part of something athletic, plan ahead. Allow for recovery time before travel. If it’s a day trip, plan time to hydrate, cool down, eat, walk and stretch again before you hop in the car. If you are on vacation, don’t do your most strenuous outings on the last day. If you are away for the weekend, to specifically attend an event, prebook a local RMT for a massage after. Go to a local pool for a swim and hot tub or sauna. If you are at a hotel, bring Epsom salts with you for a bath.

Be aware of the location and weather forecast and plan accordingly. You don’t want to get a sunburn, windburn, heat exhaustion or hypothermia. If you live at a low elevation and you are traveling to the mountains, be aware that the elevation makes a difference. Give yourself a few days to adjust before your event or hike. The same is true for dramatic changes in humidity.

Be Aware

Most of these situations are quite social, people attend with family and friends. Sometimes athletes who become dangerously fatigued, dehydrated, overheated, chilled, or drops in blood sugar are not aware of it. Watch out for each other and have someone that you check in with, a fellow participant or driver. Organized events always have a first aid tent or EMTs available, know where they are. If you are active, you should take a first aid/cpr course so you know what to look for and how to respond.

Homemade Sports/Energy Drinks

I have very strong opinions about sports drinks. The purpose of an energy drink is to hydrate and replace electrolytes. Unless someone is sweating excessively, several hours of training, working in extreme conditions, hiking in heat (Grand Canyon, Drumheller—the kind of heat that makes you feel sick or dizzy), all they need to hydrate is water. The other time we might need them is when we get dehydrated due to illness. Drink some milk and eat a banana for the minerals. Most of us have too much salt in our diet, we don’t have to drink it too.

Studies have been done with Olympic athletes going hard for a long time on a training bike for hours. There was only a slight dip in their electrolyte level.  Purchased energy drinks are now available with less sugar, which is good, but they still have a ton of dye (I don’t even want to know how they get electric blue!) and artificial flavours. I encourage you to research it yourself if you are a frequent energy drink user. They never should be given to children. If you have a dehydrated child, use the pedialyte drinks or popsicles that are formulated for children.

If you do feel the need for a sports drink, give these a try. You can also find electrolyte mixes at health food stores that you can add to any beverage (a good thing to add to a first aid kit or take on a hike for emergencies).  You can also use the Vitamin C packets. Although magnesium is what’s in Epsom salts, I wouldn’t suggest using them in a homemade sport drink. Epsom salts are taken to relieve constipation. Let’s think about that for a second, what would it do if you aren’t constipated! Calcium and magnesium are often combined as a supplement and they are both good for relieving muscle cramps.

Fruit Sports Drink

1 quart/4 cups Liquid—water, green tea, herbal tea, coconut water

1/8-1/4 tsp Natural Salt—Himalayan, Dead Sea Salt (natural salts have more trace minerals than table salt)

1/4-1/2 tsp Calcium Magnesium tablet, crushed

1/4 c Fruit Juice—grape, apple, lemon, lime, pineapple, etc

1-2 T Sweetener—honey, stevia (optional)

Brew tea or warm other base liquid. Mix while beverage is warm so the salts and CaMg dissolve. Add the juice and shake or stir well. Chill in the fridge and shake again before using. You could make large batch ahead of time and add the juice of choice to individual servings to switch it up or according to different family member’s tastes.