Roots & Rocks
I mentioned, briefly in passing, in the summer cooking post, that we made homemade root beer. We have been making homemade wine for years, mostly from kits, a little from scratch. A year or two ago we ventured into gluten free beer. Now that we had invested in the bottles and capping tool, I wanted to make root beer. Me, being me, wanted to do it completely from scratch, with sassafrass and sarsparilla root. Turns out it's really hard to get in Canada, and expensive to ship. So, we finally decided to do it the "easy" way and pick up a root beer package from our local brew store.
The "kit" comprised of a small brown bottle of flavouring syrup and a packet of yeast. If anyone hasn't made wine, mead (remind me to tell you my mead story one day!) or beer, here's the process in a nut shell. In a big bucket of water add some type of sugar and yeast. Let it ferment, and you get alcohol. The type depends mostly on your sugar source; honey=mead, fruit juice=wine, grains=beer. There is some fine tuning, so you get a quality product rather than rotgut, but that's the basic process.
The instructions we got for root beer; put water, sugar, the flavour agent and yeast in a big bucket. At first we were puzzled at how we would get a non-alcoholic beverage for our kids, by following the same process as for alcohol. The answer is location, location, location.
The first location is right after mixing. You bottle the root beer in bottles and cap them. By excluding oxygen and keeping it under pressure, the fermenting can't continue all the way to alcohol.
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| Bottling the root beer |
The third location is a cool place for two weeks to slow fermentation and allow the sediment to settle. It all sounds very simple, right?
Everyone has been working and doing school from home, and our work space is in the basement. It turns out our house has been kept warmer than usual to keep the basement livable. After only one week a bottle exploded! I was at the grocery store, doing the once a week only shop (have I mentioned how much milk my kids drink?) After I filled the truck with all the fresh food that barely fits in the fridge as it is, I got the text. "Root beer too carbonated, have to put all 30 bottles in the fridge, hope there is room for the groceries!" It's amazing what you can balance on top of milk jugs if you have to make use of vertical space!
So, a few more weeks go by, and we decide it's time for a taste test. Choose a bottle, bring out the bottle opener, pop off the cap. The foaming geyser of root beer hit the roof. The locker room of Stanley Cup champions had nothing on my kitchen! There was only about an inch of pop left in the bottle. The worst part, is that the violent foaming action stirred up all the sediment and made the root beer taste really yeasty, like someone mixed pop and beer. Not nice!
Over the next little while, we tried a few more times, hoping we just had to let the process calm down. Still would put Ol' Faithful to shame. Did I mention, we have 30 bottles of the stuff?
We decided to think on it for a bit, tossed around a few ideas like re-bottling to release some of the carbonation or chilling them until almost frozen before opening. We didn't find an option we liked, but in the meantime, the root beer had a few more weeks to settle. We have now discovered that if you open it agonizingly slow to release the pressure, it doesn't decorate the ceiling or stir up the sediment (pour slowly and leave the last bit in the bottle). After all that, it's actually delicious!
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| Best to open them outside! |
I will never complain about the price of old fashioned root beers again!!
Hot Stone Massage
Hot Stone or Hot Rock Massage is often viewed as the ultimate treat you can get for yourself or a loved one as a gift. I have often described the sensation as liquid hot silk. Most people don’t think much about a hot stone massage beyond how luxurious it is.
| Basalt hot stones |
There are three types of rocks used in stone massages. The key element is a fine crystalline structure that makes for a silky smooth surface. The most common is basalt, a type of volcanic rock that is ideal as a hot massage tool. It has a high iron content which enables it to hold heat for a long time. Stones are usually selected from river banks where sand and water have smoothed the fine grained rock to a polished finish. Massage stones are non-porous which is important for hygiene. Pumice is also volcanic rock, but it is extremely rough and so porous that it will float. That is for pedicures, not massage!
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| Polished jade stones |
Jade is the most versatile massage tool, as it can be used both for hot and cold massage. That’s right, I said cold! There are circumstances in which cold stones are the solution, like for inflammation. Jade is very expensive and has to be carved into the right shape and usually imported from Asia. I have only met one person who has a set of Jade stones.
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| Marble stones - unusual shapes allow for specific therapeutic techniques |
The third type is marble. Marble is only used cold, so therapists will have a small selection of marble tools rather than a large massage set. I dream of one day having a marble neck pillow, a piece with a crescent cut into it. It’s a great tool for the treatment of migraines, when cold on the back of the neck brings relief. Unfortunately, the weight of the stone makes the cost of shipping prohibitive. The advantage of both jade and marble is that they can be carved into any shape imaginable.
Basalt stones can be found in a variety of sizes in the natural world, with no further cutting or carving needed. A set can be made of any number of stones from as small as a toonie to as large as I can pick up with one hand comfortably. We even have a few ordinary river rocks from the Red Deer River that we use as back warming stones, but don't massage with. They hold the heat, but they are too rough.
As I have mentioned, I don't like the term relaxation massage. Although a stone massage is incredibly relaxing and luxurious, it is also very therapeutic. The
lighter pressure makes hot stone massages good for osteoporosis,
MS or other conditions that make deep pressure painful. Hot stone is also an excellent treatment for arthritis, fibromyalgia or any other condition that benefits from heat. It’s an entire treatment of hydrotherapy. As such, the same precautions apply for hot stone as for saunas and hot tubs (pregnancy, high blood pressure, etc.)
There are many different massage routines and no two therapists will do the exact same treatment. I will give you a quick run down of my base routine, which I switch up based on individual needs.
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| The rocks in the upper left are river rocks, even in a picture you can see how much smoother the basalt is. The cluster of tiny pebbles are toe stones. |
This massage is a bit more oily then my usual treatments to ensure good glide for the rocks. The stones are hot enough that I can just hold them comfortably. They are perfectly smooth and most people can’t tell when I use rocks and when I switch to my hands. Stones can be used as a tool to perform some deep tissue techniques, if time allows. As the rocks cool, I often tuck them against joints, along side knee or ankle, to maintain contact.
After the backs of the legs are done, I unwrap your feet and use narrow stones to massage the feet and work on pressure points. After the feet, the large stones are removed from your back I massage your back and shoulders. Not a lot of pressure is used on backs in a stone massage, too many prominent bones like the spine and shoulder blade that don’t appreciate it!
When you turn over on to your back, I place a stone under each hand to warm them (with a sheet in between, remember no bare hot rocks!) One or two large flat rocks can be placed on the stomach acts just like a hot water bottle, if the therapist has rocks flat enough, or they roll off when you breathe! I sometimes tuck rocks on either side of your neck, right at the top of the shoulders. The front of your legs, arms and shoulders all get their turn.
When it comes to the neck, I tend to switch things up. After all, the scalenes are my favourite! I usually alternate between rocks to warm the muscles and my hands to work out knots and trigger points. The sinuses and eyes are a good place to use cold stones to reduce puffiness and congestion.
As a general rule of thumb, I find that clients that like really deep massages generally aren't a fan of hot stone massages, unless they are on holidays or something. If you don't like heat, this might not be for you. Hot stones don't have to be used for the whole treatment. In some cases I have used a couple stones as a hydrotherapy tool to warm specific muscles in a massage.
Depending on the therapist and the clinic, hot stone massages can take anywhere from 60 minutes to 2 hours. They usually have to be booked ahead, because the stones take at least an hour to heat up. Clients tend to be drowsy after a hot stone massage. You should drink plenty of fluids and not have a lot planned for the rest of the day. It’s the ideal time for a nap, and I hope you have either leftovers or something in the crockpot for supper!
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