Strawberry Freezer Jam (recipe), Children's Health Systems and Women’s Heart Disease Support Group

Strawberry Freezer Jam, Courtesy of​ Wiley Farms

Tis strawberry season! Watch your local farmers markets for festivals such as the one Fifer Orchards in Camden-Wyoming is holding on May 18.

To kick off the season, I turned to another Delaware favorite, our friends at Willey Farms, for this one. Keep the strawberry season going with this jam you can eat all year long.

Ingredients

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2 quarts fresh strawberries
5 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
1 pkg (1 3/4 ounces) powdered fruit pectin

 

Directions:

  • Wash and mash the berries, measuring out enough mashed berries to make 4 cups; place in a large bowl. Stir in the sugar, corn syrup and lemon juice. Let stand for 10 minutes.
  • In a Dutch oven, combine strawberry mixture and water. Stir in pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; skim off foam.
  • Pour into jars or freezer containers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Cover and let stand overnight or until set, but not longer than 24 hours. Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks or freeze for up to 12 months. Yield: 4 1/2 pints.

Nutritional Facts: 1 serving (2 tablespoons) equals 81 calories, trace fat (trace saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 6 mg sodium, 21 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, trace protein

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Keeping Children Healthy and Happy

During the past five years, you may have noticed more hospitals and health systems promoting disease and injury prevention in addition to marketing how they can treat those illnesses and injuries.

The focus on health promotion has been an important one and has sent an important message from hospitals—they want to keep you healthy, but if you need them, they are there. For example, Christiana Care’s billboards on I-95 encourage exercise and educate about the warning signs of a stroke.

Children’s health systems are just as devoted to creating health promotion resources and programs that serve both the child and family. By understanding the role of prevention in health care, children’s health systems, such as Delaware’s Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, have built resources designed to keep children healthy and happy.

In 2010, physicians noticed a trend that warranted intervention.

“Our physicians were seeing a huge increase in overuse injuries,” says Steven Maurer, public and community relations manager at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, “More than 50 percent of injuries were from this overuse in sports like pitching baseballs. We felt it was time to address the issue and launched our Center for Sports Medicine.”

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The center, which is now the region’s largest pediatric sports medicine facility, includes indoor track lanes and aquatic therapy. The center also offers injury prevention clinics such as:

  • The ABC’s of Strength Training and Nutrition
  • Jump Smart: Protecting Your ACL
  • Overhead and Throwing Athlete
  • Yoga for Athletes

While the Center for Sports Medicine is there to provide therapy and rehabilitation services to children and teenagers, these health and wellness programs help them all become more aware of how to use their bodies and improve their form. But most of all, these prevention programs help keep them in the game.

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Women’s Heart Disease Support Group

It is easy to assume that there is a support group that is right for everybody. Some groups may be for health issues while others for coping with life experiences, yet not every group can be all things to all participants.

Not too long ago, Delawareans Cecilia Stoeckicht and Michelle Wingrave independently discovered the need for a women’s heart disease support group. They traveled all the way to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to become certified to lead an effort here in the First State.

“We are seeing a strong push to educate women in matters related to heart disease and prevention,” says Stoeckicht. “However, there are practically no groups allowing, and encouraging women heart patients to focus on supporting each other in dealing with the disease.”

The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease (aka WomenHeart) offers an annual symposium that trains women to create and coordinate support groups as part of their National Hospital Alliance. Both Stoeckicht and Wingrave signed up without knowing one another and have gone on to launch this active group at Christiana Care Health System.

“WomenHeart contacted me,” says Stoeckicht, “to let me know that another person from Wilmington also signed up for the symposium and asked if I would join forces with her instead of opening two groups at the same time. It made sense.

“With the training completed, we reached out to Christiana Care’s Center for Heart and Vascular Health to explore if they would be interested in hosting our meetings at their facilities. We received an enthusiastic response, and have continued to receive their strong support.”

I have a theory about Delaware—everybody knows everybody. It turns out Stoeckicht and Wingrave lived a couple miles from each other and didn’t know it until they sought this training. It may take some travel, but it seems that eventually all Delawareans meet one another. Now that Wingrave and Stoeckicht have created this support group, doctors and patients in other areas of the state will hopefully hear about its success and seek their own training opportunities.

“As people become more aware of the availability of such an initiative, we believe that women living with heart disease in Kent and Sussex counties will also seek to create similar support groups where they live,” Stoeckicht says.

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Healthy Events​

Wednesday, May 1
5K Fundraiser for Boston Tragedy
Location  Kelly Logan House, Wilmington
Time  6:30 p.m.
More info  barb@races2run.com

Tuesday, May 7
WomenHeart: Women and Heart Disease Support Group Meeting
Location  Conference Room 14, John H. Ammon Medical Education Center, Christiana Hospital campus, 4755 Ogletown-Stanton Road, Newark
Time  6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
More info  register online or call 800-693-CARE (2273)

Wednesday, May 15
5th Moms on a Mission 5K     
Location  Brandywine Park, Wilmington
Time  6:30 p.m.
More info  wayne@races2run.com

To submit your health-related event, email shari@shortanswerconsulting.com

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