There is a lady in Ames, IA that grows great lavender. We at Prairieland herbs do NOT grow great lavender. If we are lucky, we have a few spindly plants that survive year to year. Our soil is too clay-ey, and our farm is not in a sheltered location, so it gets very cold, windy, and snowy. Lavender does not like this. It is something we have just accepted.

So, we are always delighted when Linda shows up with her great lavender! You can see her fantastic dried lavender bunches in the picture, above. We do have some for sale in our store.Also, she brought this lovely huge box of fresh lavender!! It is going in the still tomorrow. Fresh lavender hydrosol, anyone??

Got Mint?

Fresh mint abounds this time of year, so I thought this would be a great time to post my favorite mojito recipe. Peppermint is the "classic" mint for this cocktail, but if you have other types of mint (spearmint, orange mint, applemint, etc), feel free to experiment. It's also delicious with other herbs - try lemon verbena or lemon balm, for example.


Sugar (superfine, if you have it)
Fresh Lime Juice
Rum (white)
Soda

In the bottom of a tallish glass, muddle together (smush) 5-6 fresh
mint leaves, 2 tsp. sugar, and the freshly squeezed juice of one
small lime. Fill the glass with ice, and add 2 oz. (or to taste) rum.
Top the glass with soda, stir well, and serve with a slice of lime
and some fresh mint for garnish.

YUM!

You these are delicious "virgin" too - just leave out the rum.

This is our little drying shed. It was an old farm building that we cleaned, re-roofed, and hung cattle panels from the ceiling (to attach dried bunches of herbs to).This the inside of our drying shed. i think this picture was taken about a year or two ago - the shed is not quite so tidy now. i think it it time to tidy it, as we are starting to fill it! Just yesterday we hung tidy little bunches of mountain mint, sweetgrass, lavender, and anise hyssop (destined to become smudge sticks).

Cuteness alert!

you have been warned.

This is Contessa with her brand new little colt! He is TINY. we think he may have been born prematurely, but, so far he and momma are both doing well. We're watching them very closely and giving them extra feeding and care as necessary.


Is this not the most handsome goose you have ever seen in your life? he's peeking through an old wooden fence.

We're furiously packing orders from our recent enewsletter/sale. Which necessitates lots of boxes, which we brought in, and put on the counter, and then were unable to use for SEVERAL HOURS while both Mo (left) and Violet (right) took a nap on them. sheesh. don't they know how their cat food gets paid for?

last but not least, can you guess which one of these items is NOT a gift set?

Market pictures, as promsied! Here's a picture of our booth, maybe 10 AM or so. The Des Moines farmer's market is a BIG market. They close off several blocks in the downtown Des Moines area for about 7 hours, and the entire area is turned over to the market. Hundreds of vendors and thousands of people come each week, rain or shine.
a view from our booth this past week. (Our booth changes locations, we may not be at the same spot in the market every week).


I love the market. There's amazing food, and fantastic people-watching. It's a great event for families - there are always tons of kids and oodles of dogs.

We hung some of my scarves, clothesline-style. i think it was really pretty. :)
Just a random shot of a pretty girl selling beautiful flowers. (not our booth)

and some gorgeous produce (again, not our booth).

Contessa, our 3rd miniature horse, had her baby yesterday! A little cream-colored colt. Pictures will be forthcoming! We think he was a little premature, so we're watching mom and baby very carefully, but we think everything will be fine.