$5 shipping sale!!!! Head on over to our website. Any size order shipped for only $5! (In the US only. sorry, international folks....)

Fantastic food blog - Zoe Bakes. (Thanks Jill for pointing it out to me!)

Also. When my computer blew up a few months ago, apparently I lost some updated changes to our website. Thanks to our customers for alerting us that the Magic Mud had mysteriously disappeared off our website! Rest assured. We are still making it, and it is back online!

The other page that mysteriously disappeared was our Tooth Powder recipe. It is back! Enjoy!

Our neighbors at Picket Fence Creamery are holding an old-fashioned bean-walking party. Here's what they say:

"..It became too late for us to plant corn here, so we are instead raising non-GMO soybeans. We managed to get the fields cultivated once, but due to the wet conditions were not ever able to get back in for the second cultivation. So...we are extending an invitation to anyone out there in Picket Fence newsletter land...to join us this Saturday morning to relive that wonderful summer rite of our youth - bean walking! We've had several "volunteers" sign up, and some are bringing their older kids to give them "the experience" of how they spent their summers! Bring your water jugs and your gloves, and stay for an hour and all morning. When you've had enough, we'll treat you to all the chocolate milk and ice cream you can eat! We'll start at 8 a.m., and will be walking till noon. Hope to see you Saturday! "

If you're interested in helping, give them a call at (515)438-COWS!

In other news: We recently bottled up about 45 free samples of our Facial Serum for Oily/problem skin, and about the same amount of Hempchouli shampoo bars. If you're ordering in the next few days or so, and want to try a free sample of either or both of those products, simply make a note of that in the "customer comments" part of our shopping cart, and we'll add those in for you.! (offer good until the samples run out).

Our friend Tina, of the Essential Herbal Magazine (great magazine, go subscribe if you haven't already! ) has a wonderful blog post up about her Winter Tea. It's the time of year to be gathering and drying herbs for winter, and this is a really easy, delightful, and whimsical way to enjoy your herbs as tea all winter long!

Roe at Sun Rose Aromatics has a great blog post about my favorite, easy way to dry herbs. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly encourage you to do so. It is easy, nearly foolproof, and makes your car smell great. :) enjoy!

Last week, our fantastic farrier, Kim, came to trim the horses' hooves. This is a regular occurrence, for their health and safety. She's so great! A real animal lover, and an expert at her job. How many times do you suppose that such an operation is overseen by a Canada Goose?


The little ones frisked around, as their mommas got their feet cared for first. The baby horses are alot like human babies - really curious, affectionate, and they really like to TASTE their world. Delilah, the oldest one, is especially bad about that - she LOVES to nibble! Anything. clothes, arms, hair, tools - anything she can get her baby teeth on.


A closeup of Kim working on the hooves.


These are Baron's tiny little hooves. I LOVE the coloration. Aren't they fancy??


The dogs love to hang around and get bits of horse hoof to chew on. EEEWW!!!

It's here, it's here, it's here! The August Luxury Soap of the Month - Moroccan rose. *swoon*
If you love florals - REAL florals, not synthetic scents, this is ABSOLUTELY for you! We only have about 50 bars of this soap so I do expect it to sell out pretty quickly. Visit our website to purchase!

In other news - we did the farmer's market yesterday, and had a great time. John likes to bring his spinning wheel and spin while we're there vending; seeing and hearing people's reactions is absolutely priceless. I will have to write up a whole blog post just that, sometime. Anyway. After the market we delivered orders to some local stores that carry our goods: East Village Books, the Living History Farm gift store, and Heart of Iowa Marketplace. So if you're in the Des Moines area looking for Prairieland Herbs goods, check out any of those stores!

Last but not least; it's 97 degrees here, and a heat index of over 105 is expected today. HOT, hot hot. Stay cool and safe everyone!

I spent 5 minutes walking around the farm yesterday getting pics. So here is a 5 minute tour of the farm! Go was having a nap by the doggie soaps.


John was working on making a gate for the horses new paddock.


Beaker was supervising everything from one of his favorite locations: underneath a car.


Jake(the boy) was trying to get this ancient and terrifying machine started, while....


Jake (the dog) watched from the nearby shade.


Don, (Donna's dad) was surveying our weed patch.


Future smudge bundles are drying nicely in our drying shed.


The little herb plants (destined for distillaion) are doing their best to grow, but with this crazy weather, it's nearly impossible. They're TINY.


But the crabapples look SPECTACULAR. they're huge!

We've been getting emails about our violet jelly, lately, so I'll answer some of the common questions about it here. :)

1) what does it taste like? Well. it tastes sweet, like regular jelly, with floral overtones, but not as strongly floral as, say, roses.

2) how do I use it? You can use it like any other jelly - on toast, or warm biscuits with butter (MMM). It's beautiful in thumbprint cookies, or delicious on waffles or pancakes or crepes. It can be slightly warmed, and poured over fresh fruit, as a delicious glaze. You can stir it into tea or coffee, as a flavored sweetener. Last but not least, you can use it with cold meats, or on sandwiches of all sorts.

ARGH. STORMS.

We had HUGE storms here last night. I don't know how much it rained, but it seems like it rained for hours. When donna checks her rain gauge, I'll give you an estimate of how much rain we got. But basically, this rainy wet weather is awful for our crops. We're having a horrid year for growing things. Because of the damp spring, we didn't finish our spring planting until July 3rd. (yes, really). None of the plants we put in the ground have actually DIED due to weather, but they are just sort of sitting there, not really growing. It's difficult to watch. (Of course, the weeds are thriving. isn't that always the way?) I'll post some pictures pretty soon, but for now, you can read this July 2008 crop update from Small Potatoes Farm, an organic CSA a few miles from us. They basically get the same weather we do, so you can see how it has affected their crops.

As promised - pictures of the storm damage from last weeks 80-100 MPH straight line winds. This is donna's deck, which basically just disconnected from her house, because of the horrible winds. It was leaning WAY more, but as you can see was propped up on poles, and is in the process of being fixed.

We spent most of Tuesday cutting up huge branches that were downed, and hauling away branches of all sizes into this huge brush pile. it's hard to see the size of it, but it's about 6 feet tall. We'll have a heck of a bonfire when it all dries out.

The neighbors trampoline blew about a half mile away. We found their slide, lawn chairs, and a few kids toys caught in various trees and bushes. Crazy weather!



Sassy adores spending time outdoors. isn't he handsome?
And, now Violet thinks she is a candle, I guess. She is a goofy girl.

Folks have been walking in the store lately going "hmm. why are the shelves so empty"? Well THIS is why. we've just been quite busy. This is today's haul to the post office - ONE DAY. 52 packages. 5 going overseas (Singapore, Australia, France and 2 to the UK). So, yeah. that's what we've been doing.


So, it was raining this morning. And mom's mini-herd is used to getting twice-daily outside romps - they get to get out of their pen, and wander around the farm, eating grass and being happy mini horses. But because it was raining this morning, she didn't let them out. And we kept hearing these LOUD, IRRITATED, DEMANDING mini-horse whinnys. They were MAD! So they got to spend extra time outside in the afternoon. This is Baron, and he has discovered that iris leaves are yummy.

This is Delafino, the tiniest new baby. isn't he just ADORABLE? And so tiny!!


For a size comparison, the one on the left is Delilah, the oldest baby, and Delafino is on the right.
Here Donna oversees her herd. The babies just run around in a hysterical little mini-gang, neighing and bucking and eating and playing really having the time of their mini-horse lives.

In sad news, we lost Pal today, our Jack Russel Terrier puppy. He will be missed.

Another great hydrosol article! Courtesy of the Aromatic Plant Project.

Hydrosols and 101 ways to use them

Check out this great article on using eucalyptus hydrosol to soothe the symptoms of hay fever.

We distill our eucalyptus hydrosol from fresh eucalyptus grown on our farm. :)

We had some interesting weather last night - not tornadoes, but "near-tornadic activity". (For those of you that don't live in tornado-zones, that means bitchin nasty winds that can do a hell of alot of damage.) She is fine, her house is fine, the shop is fine, things are just a bit messy - limbs down, branches broken, the barn door blown off. Tomorrow will be lots of cleanup, some chainsaw work. AND, of course, we have a bus tour tomorrow! Ah well, they came to see life on the farm - they'll see it.

2 of the babies! Baron on the left, and Delilah on the right. They're a few months apart in age.


Random grasses


Purple coneflower in the rain garden just outside our shop.


Our first tomato of the season! our veggies look so pathetic, but, hey. we at least have one tomato.


The veggies may look pathetic but the fruit looks AMAZING. Is this tiny pear just the cutest thing ever?


why do people call these weeds and mow them down? i think they're gorgeous. this is the ditch on our farm.

Oh, gads. We're going to be at the Downtown Des Moines farmer's market tomorrow - and the weather forecast is a predicted 70% chance of heavy rains.

Sounds like we're gonna get wet!

Anyway, we'll be there, so if anyone wants to pick up any items in particular, please call or email us before 5PM today, and we'll bring them along!!!

More new pictures, for our new picture project. I really love this picture of our body scrubs.

Also, I really love our salt scrubs. Both Donna and I are a huge fan of the salt scrubs (LOVE that extra scrubby action), but my sister prefers the salt scrubs. It's just personal preference.

*swoon*

We distilled the fresh lavender (see post below). Can i just say - WOW?! We used fresh, locally grown lavender - "fat spike" variety. I cut off all the stems, and just put the flowering tops in the still. It is AMAZING hydrosol!! Really strong, with lots of essential oil, and a fantastic scent.

We got about a third of a gallon of this amazing hydrosol. I have put it on our website; if you're interested in ordering some, go to our hydrosols page. Lavender hydrosol is good for just about everything! It would make a fantastic facial toner, sheet spray, or disinfecting wash for scrapes and cuts. It helps repel insects, and would be great on pet bedding.

and you KNOW i'm gonna try some in an aloholic beverage. I'll let you know what I come up with. :)

Sample sunday yesterday was FANTASTIC! Thanks to all of you that showed up. I hope you had as much fun as we did!!

We are in the process (it will take a while; please be patient) of updating all our product photos. Last year we spent a lot of time redesigning and re-doing all our labels, and a few containers, to streamline the process for us, and to make things more identifiable to you (hopefully). We have not yet gotten our website photos to reflect our new "look", and are working on that now! The above picture, of our body powders (which are now on sale, by the way) is one of the new photos. What do you think?

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??