My arthritis has been quite unpleasant for the past few days, and I realised that I had slacked a bit on my ginger and turmeric consumption. I happened to have a huge ginger root sitting neglected in the basket, so I decided to prepare it in a different way. When some herbs are heated, cooked or dried, they lose potency, but ginger seems to endure well. Sometimes, what is good for us is neither pleasant nor easy to consume, so preparing herbs in an effective yet pleasing way can be a challenge! Here is how I make candied ginger root:
2 cups fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup white suger
1/8 cup raw honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
a dash or 2 of cinnamon if desired
1/4 tsp vanilla extract if desired
Put everything above into your pot and simmer until your ginger root slices are tender. (You may have to add a little water along the way, but don't add a bunch. Just keep the ginger off the bottom of the pan a tiny bit) Then, strain your ginger out and roll it in a bowl of white sugar until every piece is well coated, and spread it on wax paper to dry. The liquid left behind should be a nice syrup, and you can use it in other recipes, or for colds.
I do get burned out on tisanes, so a more solid way of consuming certain herbs is a welcome break! Caution: Candied ginger should be treated with respect! Eating too much (and it IS hard to resist, if you like ginger) can cause stomach upsets, diarrhea & heart burn. Ginger can inhibit blood clotting, so I do not advise consuming greater amounts than are commonly used as seasoning if you are also taking pharmaceutical blood thinners.

Hopefully, some shreds of the old Crafted Herbals site will remain after the 21st, but there will be no plethora of soap varieties listed for sale here. The plethora has been dispersed to other selling venues, which is not at all a bad thing! There is So much restructuring to do, and doubtless it will take a while. The look of this may be a bit hodge podge for a bit, as integration progresses. Bubble bath! Yes, this year, it's all about enjoying a pleasant and satisfying bubble bath! How I have longed for bubble bath! There really seems to be no way to make a satisfying bubble bath without some form of sulfate-ish surfactant, but so far, sodium lauryl sulfoacetate (a kinder cousin of the oft maligned sodium lauryl sulfate) seems to be a winner for my temperamental skin when it is coupled with some good oils. I have been immersed in test bubble bath formulas for a solid month and it has felt darn good! 

I have posted notifications about the fact that this site as it is will not exist after January 20th. Yes, that's true. I have sold more on Ebay in the past couple of months (and it's a totally different handmade product) than I have sold the entire past year on this website. Does this mean that Crafted Herbals is going away? Not entirely! There is just no reason to keep paying and paying for a business site that isn't paying for its self. I would rather put the money that I am going to save in the imminent downgrade into developing and creating new things! Crafted Herbals will still offer great soap, and there will still be a Crafted Herbals website here, but it won't be a fancy Weebly business site. It will be a site with links to places with our soap and other handmade wares available for purchase.