Dehydrated Ginger ~ Baby Blankets for Donation ~ Tidbits

 I freeze fresh ginger often, so that I have it on hand for all sorts of recipes, and it has worked out very nicely.  Many people do not know you can do this with fresh ginger root (we purchase organic).

How I Freeze Ginger Root

I wash the organic ginger root, dry it, wrap it a few times in plastic wrap, and store it inside a freezer bag.  I date each bag and the door of the freezer works best, or it may get lost in your freezer storage.

Back to the dehydrated organic ginger root.

We love herbal/herbal medicinal teas.  I dehydrated a small-ish bit of organic ginger root in May of 2025.  I have been using small bits of it for tea infusing and tea brewing.  It's worked out great, and continues to maintain it's flavor.  I will definitely keep dehydrated, organic ginger root a staple in my pantry. I will be using it to experiment with other recipes.  Considering the amount of power outages this year, I've decided a few more dehydrated (food, herbs, etc.) experiments will be done. 

I used my dehydrator to dry the sliced ginger root, but I am told that some very new models of kitchen ovens, have the "dehydrator" option on them.  I am also told, some air fryers have a dehydrator option.

The baby blankets I have completed, per a request from an area pregnancy center, are a one-color pattern, and a different color edge (all using yarn I was given).  They are all like the one above, but with different edging.

The main part of the blanket is with Aran Redheart yarn.

Three baby blankets ready to donate.  Each one took about 2 full skeins of Aran yarn, but as I got to more of the skeins, I found them shorter in length (even though the ounces were marked the same).  Either way, the edges were scrap yarn as well, but all are ready to donate, and I still have more Aran colored yarn (and more of a few other colors, for more baby blankets). 

It is still cold here.   This morning is was 18°F (windchill), with a temperature of 23°F, so I got them finished in time to be used this winter.

More repairs have been started, and one almost finished.  I'm so thankful to get these jobs done.   More supplies are needed to continue.  I'll be back with a more lengthy update on winter shenanigans. 

I can tell you one thing.  Two side projects developed from my closet purge project, and one is putting letters into a book.  My word, it has become so time consuming.  I'll be honest, I am not sure it will be affordable, so the back up plan is to scan and print them, and put them in a binder for us.  

The only two kids slightly interested in these old letters, cannot read cursive  (nope, our schools stopped teaching it sadly).  All of the letters are to my Dad from 1944 to 1958.  There are many more than span from the 80's to about 2003, but my focus is the first set of letters.

Before I sign off this post today, I can tell you that the yarn I ordered from Herrschners online, back in November of 2025, is still on back order (it was for another project).  It may be getting  canceled.  

Somebody.  I can't say who (gulp!).  Forgot to buy new radish seeds for the garden this spring.   Just a modge podge of life happenings right now, but wanted to pop on here and share a few things today.  Last year ended with several months of chaotic activity (much out of our control).  I have discovered a gallon of outdoor paint, in which neither of us can even come up with one idea of what we bought it for.  The goal this year, is no more chaotic activity.

One question for "writers" here  - what writing resources are available today?  I used to read The Writer magazine, and Writer's Digest magazine.  I see that "The Writer" is no longer printed.

One question for those who bake/cook - any good and interesting ways to use frozen strawberries (prefer healthy recipes, but ....) up?  I think I froze too many last summer, ha ha!  I do make cobblers or crisps, and muffins.

Dehydrated Ginger ~ Baby Blankets for Donation ~ Tidbits  ©  March 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Welcome March ~ This and That

 Not much to talk about with winter lingering.  Other than the weather, which is back and forth and all over the map lately.  We may actually leave the cold weather this week, and venture into the lower 70's.  However, the spring rains and thunderstorms come with it.  We have had a lot of foggy days lately too.

I have been doing the boring refreshing spring cleaning.  We took a large load to donate (mostly clothing).  We are not even close to being done, but chipping away at getting it done before garden planting season.

In the mix of this cleaning/purging and re-organizing, I now have two photo type projects to complete (but frees up space it was taking, and will put it all to a good use).

On the zero purchasing this year list:

-books (unless it's non-fiction, and absolutely needed), concentration will be on reading what we have (both of us).  I love, love love browsing used book sales, and stores, but no more this year until we have read through our current book stash.

-yarn (this last large load of gifted yarn was overwhelming, and is taking up a LOT of space)

Kitchen work never seems to end, nor give me a break.  Cooking from scratch can do that.  I once told a friend, that I don't even know how people can keep their houses clean, if they work full time too.  I don't regret it, but there are some days where washing all those dishes can really get to me.

It seems that all homemade dry mixes run out at the same time here.  It's been a month of refilling them, like homemade dry taco mix, fajita mix and the like. 

Speaking of "kitchen" chores, we were out running errands and I picked up a free brochure.  It contained a free recipe for soup that we tried, as we had one last butternut squash to cook up.

The soup is very simple, yet delicious.  Great way to use up that small "junk" jar of leftover pastas, or what some people call their "orphan" past a jar (a mix of bits of leftover uncooked pasta from other cooking days).   The only problem was, our freezer was out of spicy Italian sausage, and we could not find it at two stores we went to.  Either way, we used a "hot" sausage and it turned out good. We will keep the recipe, as it's very simple and can be adjusted to a crockpot recipe very easily.

We have gotten some appointments off the calendar and have already set more for later in the year.  The book in the above photo is a "tea" brewing/informational book.  I love to learn new things, but so far there is a lot of information I already know.  I do plan to finish the book to see if there are any "nuggets" to learn.

One fun "bit" so far, is that the teabag itself was invented by accident.  A man sent "samples" of tea in silk bags and the teabag convenience was born.  

I finished another baby blanket, which used up two more skeins of the Aran colorway yarn, and some leftover pink that was also in the mix of gifted yarn.  Basic blanket, but yarn put to good use (donations for a pregnancy center).

We are very behind in spring garden preparation.  Many of the home repairs we started to collect supplies for, have been delayed.  The word "delayed" is such an annoying word (more like frustrating, ha ha!).

I have also "delayed" a writing project, that has a deadline this month.  I really had the ambition, but trying to keep all my "ducks" in a row this spring has been a huge challenge.

Wise words from my current devotional . . .

"Find time to rest and set yourself apart from the busy, busy, busy of this world."  (Just Breathe, Devotions and Prayers for the Overwhelmed Heart, Barbour Publishing, 2024).

Welcome March ~ This and That   ©  March 2026 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Garden ~ Canning Halted ~ Butterfly Pea Flower Tea ~ Power Outage Preparedness ~ Lap Afghans Donated

 Garden clean up is very late this year, due to circumstances beyond our control.  Now we are delayed with rain, but we may have a few warmer days this week.  We may only have two days left to finish the removal. In hindsight, we should have hired help, but.....

The sunshine kabocha produced a few, although most do not look completely ripe (by color), and the butternut is pretty small.  The cocozelle zucchini we left on the vines is the perfect size for seed saving.

Although most of the mashed potato squash was cross pollinated, we got a few that produced to enjoy.  We literally got zero spaghetti squash (which is very very rare, but we did have a bad drought year).  The Mashed potato squash is the white one in the above photo.

Russian red kale and a mix of Swiss chard were washed, sliced, blanched and frozen for winter use.  The bugs got to most of the Swiss chard.

Green onions were dehydrated for the first time ever.  I froze some as well, but we now have two options.  To dehydrate the green onions, you want to leave them whole (like I do with chives).  I store them as whole as I can in a canning jar, which is vacuum sealed.  I will snip or grind them as needed.  Each preservation method produces a different flavor and different texture.  

Snow is in the forecast, along with the rain.  Who knows what we'll get.  There are coyote and raccoon droppings all around the property as fall weather turns.

We've been trying to focus meals on meat and vegetables lately.  Easy, healthy and lower cost.  Fruit is always in the mix of course, but we are thrilled to find a new butcher for most of our meat (lowering our cost).  In the photo is a roast I put in a crock pot by itself (veggies in another one), and simply topped it with salt, pepper and a container of homemade mushroom soup (which I pre-make and freeze).  Absolutely delicious.

(Applesauce cake baked with home canned applesauce and a bit of molasses, topped with crock pot baked {similar to fried apples} apples)

Sadly, my canning is halted for the season (again, out of my control).  I have more apples, but we'll be adding them to salads, cooked meals (with vegetables), added to yogurts, crock pot "fried" apples, and such.  I want to try an Einkorn applesauce cake next.

I have already listed plans for apple canning next year.  I'm not sure if we'll get apples every year yet.  We'll find out next season.

Tea time . . .

New medicinal/herbal tea tried.  I have had the flowers, but brewed the tea for my facial toner.  I finally had to the time to brew some, and try it as iced tea.  I have discovered that adding lemon infused honey makes this the best.  It's butterfly pea flower tea (organic).  I will be trying it hot in the future.  I'm on the fence with buying another herbal tea recipe book.

I have since located two stores that specialize with teas, and one particularly with medicinal herbal teas.  Both are a bit of a drive, but on the radar for when there is time to check them both out.  

A recent power outage (actual two days of outages within one week)  gave us the chance to try out some portable, battery operated light bulbs.  I do have chargeable light bulbs in some lamps as well (some charge as they are used daily).  I do see how more canned fruit would come in handy for power outages, so that is on my radar for next year.  We also have two solar chargeable light bulbs, and are interested in expanding more preparedness for such times.  Our portable (small generator) can run the portable electric water pot, coffee pot, or other appliances.

On the handicraft front . . .

Seven crocheted lap afghans were donated to an organization that helps veterans and first responders this year.  I package each one in a zipper bag.  It keeps them clean for transport, and eventually to the new owner.

Started a new lap afghan.  I'm currently searching for new blanket patterns using stripes of different colors of yarn.

I had purchased a snap project bag for another crochet project, and needed one for traveling back and forth for appointments, and they did not have the same one in stock.  I ordered this one, and was not disappointed, although more expensive.  The larger part has a side zipper area, shoulder strap, and comes with a scissor holder and smaller zipper storage bag.  It works perfectly for the size I needed. 

It's been one doozy of a year, and we are so ready for it to be over with, so we can start a new year with renewed inspiration. 

It's time to finish up notes in our garden journal for the year.  We did not plant fall garlic (beyond our control), but we do plan to plant it fall of 2026.  I have dug up two chive starts, and already have someone to gift them to.  Thanks for reading today's, much longer than usual, blog post.

Garden ~ Canning Halted ~ Butterfly Pea Flower Tea ~ Power Outage Preparedness ~ Lap Afghans Donated  ©  November 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

. . . from the handiwork journal

Finished this baby blanket.

 

These bookmarks are not a new project, but a "found" project I found tucked inside a container.  I have no idea how I made the flower part (I assume printed on cardstock and sealed using the library resources).  I simply crocheted the "string" part of them.  I honestly do not know why I made them, but they are stored in a bag to donate to the little library service program.  

I finished these 3 crocheted flower bookmarks (had them in parts for a while now).  I have added them to the service donations for the little libraries as well.

For those who crochet -  Something fun to share!  

Go to the National Park Service (on your computer or phone), and put in "crochet" in the search bar.  They have free crochet patterns for a Beaver, Lighthouse, Walleye, Saguaro Cactus, and a few more. Who knew? 

. . . from the handiwork journal  ©  July 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart