I've been very lax about posting pictures lately - I'm sorry, everyone! it has been a busy few weeks. heck, it's been a busy month. I'm not sure where it went? We didn't even have time to do an October e-newsletter!!! Anyway, here are a few photos, taken yesterday. We had a "hard" freeze about a week ago, but have had gorgeous weather (almost 70! balmy, sunny - I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt) since then. Go figure. The cold-hardy herbs - mints, catnip, sage, thyme, are still green and lovely, but most of the others are either harvested or just - done. The photo above is a shot of our annual herb beds.

The farmers were delighted with the week of sunshine and dry weather - all around us, the fields are bare and empty, like this one.

And here are 2 of the "babies" - the miniature horse "kids" grow so fast! Baron is on the left, and Delafino is on the right.

More soon......

We've had a BUSY month here at Prairieland Herbs, and have gotten a wee bit behind on some things.....such as our Luxury Soap of the Month. But I've finally got it posted online. "Flying Moon" is a luscious, heady blend of ylang-ylang (an exotic floral) and pure vanilla absolute. Enhanced with organic goat's milk, black cocoa butter, aloe extract, pumpkin seed oil (how very seasonal!!!), silk fibers, AND shea butter - well, wow. I just don't know what else to say except....oh yeah. FANTABULOUS. There are about 50 bars, and they WILL go fast.....

We have exactly TWO spots left in this coming Saturday's class - Compost-dyeing With Natural Dyestuffs. It's gonna be GREAT - if you're at all interested, do sign up! The scarf above was compost-dyed, then treated with ammonia as a post mordant (and, as a shameless plug, is available for sale in Maggie's Etsy Store....

Heather recently gave us a lovely product review on her blog, and in the comments on that blog, she got a variation on that age-old question - "Why do they use lye to make soap? Isn't lye a toxic substance?".

This is a very, VERY common question that we get asked. Anyone who makes or sells handmade soap will invariably get asked this question. Heather did not know the answer to that question, so she asked us. We LOVE when customers ask questions!!! We wrote her a response, which she put on her blog (with our express permission). Because this is such a commonly asked question, I thought we'd put the answer here as well.

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Let's start with the very basics. You cannot make soap without lye. Soap is
made by a chemical reaction occuring between fats (oils) and lye (sodium
hydroxide, or other similar alkaline substance....but we won't diverge into
that just now). The phrase "chemical reaction" is very important there - in
other words, those 2 ingredients, combine together and than CHANGE, to form
soap. Properly made soap, while made WITH lye, will not have any lye in it
at the end of the process. You will have saponified oils - also known as
soap. A quick check at your local library on any current cold process
soapmaking book will confirm those facts, as will this well-respected
soapmaking site: http://www.millersoap.com/SoapFAQs.html

Yes, Lye is a substance that must be treated with much respect. Improperly
used, it can be quite dangerous. However, used with care, caution, and
respect, it will turn ordinary oils into divine handmade soap that is very
good for your skin! As a point of fact, lye is also used to cure certain
types of food, such as lutefisk, hominy, and green olives. For more
information, you may visit this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye

There are many way to label soap -all falling within the letter of the law,
but some that "hide" the lye more than others. We believe in educating the
public, therefore we have "sodium hydroxide" listed right in the ingredients
list. Other soaps will have labels that say things like: "Saponified oils of
coconut, palm kernel, and olive", or list ingredients as "sodium tallowate"
or "sodium cocoate" (translation: saponified tallow, and saponified coconut
oil). These labels are technically correct - and still point to the same
process - lye combined with oils to create soap.

Liquid soap is handmade with a slightly different type of lye - Potassium
hydroxide, instead of sodium hydroxide ( or sometimes a combination of
both). The above facts remain the same, however - To make any soap, liquid
or bar, fats/oils must be combined with lye, and saponification then
occurrs.

Melt and pour soap is a quite different product - it is often comprised of
synthetic detergents, and we do not consider it a handmade product. Most
commercial liquid bodywashes are also quite full of synthetic sudsing
agents, colorants, petroleum-by-products and goodness knows what else -
frankly, we don't even consider them in the same realm as handmade soaps. We
personally prefer good handmade soap, made with lye, to artificial
ingredients we cannot pronounce. But to each their own!! :)

We have another 3-farm Sample Sunday coming up this Sunday, October 19th! Join us at each of our 3 farms, between 12-5, and spend a delightful day in the country, sampling the harvest bounty of the midwest.

Here's what's happening:

Prairieland Herbs

Pete Mahlberg, from Dallas County Conservation, will be giving a talk on
"Critters of Dallas County" at 1pm. Perfect for the whole family! He will be on hand all afternoon
to answer questions, and share his display of artifacts and critters.

Guest Vendor Sally Kilkenny will be sampling and selling her delicious homemade jams!

Mary DouBrava will be giving free 5 minute Reiki treatments - a great chance to experience this energetic healing art.

Kristin Wilson, of Zoko Jewelry, will be selling her fantastic handmade jewelry.

We will be sampling our newest Biscuit Bars (soaps), check out our naturally dyed silk scarves from Girl With A Sword Productions, and we still have a few spots left for our Natural Cleansers and Natural Dyeing classes!!

Picket Fence Creamery

Hay rides in the pasture. Local food samples: pumpkin ice cream, elk sticks, cheese balls, tortellini,fresh peanut butter, Elvis muffins, Heirloom apples, honey, apple cider, Iowa wine & more.

$5 Lunch – Brats,fixins’, chips, milk & ice cream (Kids meal $3).

Kids – pony rides, hay maze, calves, kittens & free pencils.

Super Deals – 90% lean ground beef - $2.99/lb. with 10 lb. purchase; 5 lb bag local apples - $5; AppleCrisp & quart of ice cream $10.

NEW – Local gouda cheese & local homemade apple pies; free half pint ofice cream with $25 purchase; free coolers while they last.

(Maggie's note - THE GOUDA IS DIVINE. I've been getting this at the des moines farmer's market every chance I could get, and could NOT be happier that I can now buy it at Picket Fence. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Northern Prairie Chevre

Bring your lawn chairs and enjoy the music and singing of Tim Mitchum.

Snus Hill Winery, Tassel Ridge Winery, and La Vida Loca Winery will give out samples of their award-winning wines – all for sale in Miss Tillie’s !

Winter is coming! We’re raffling a beautiful hand- crocheted afghan that would make
a wonderful gift for that special someone – or yourself! Tickets are $1/ea or 6 for $5. Proceeds go to theSusan G. Komen Foundation.

Milton from Sheeder Farms will be selling bratwurst sandwiches for just $3!!
Chris has the deep fat fryer heated up and is selling Northern Prairie Chevre Fried Cheddar Curds for just$4. Delicious baked goods from Corn Crib Catering in Madrid.

Relax with Shannon, Massage Therapist, who is offering chair massages - $10/10 min. Mary Boyvey, Hoopnotica Certified instructor will be offering free classes on the hour (see photo below - that is her at the last Sample Sunday!), and have hoops available for all ages to try and/or purchase. Pat from Randol Honey will be sampling her creamed honey. Stock up on Sheeder Farms meats and eggs & various cuts of elk from Skeeter Creek Elk.

Kids – enjoy the swings and sand box in the front yard and make a special craft.
Six little 4-legged girls are looking for your attention!! Gary, Wendy and Lana will be giving
tours of the barn and will introduce you to all the girls. Honeybump and Stosha are looking
for kisses too! Come on in to Miss Tillie’s for samples of our cheese and MUCH MORE!

The pre-frost harvest continues....Yesterday I cut the last of our purple basil, to turn into delicious jelly. For those of you that don't know, purple basil has a very similar leaf shape and taste to "regular" pesto, but it is a DIVINE purple color. So, you can do really cool things like make purple basil vinegar with it, or make purple pesto.

Making purple basil vinegar couldn't be easier. You simply stuff fresh purple basil leaves into a glass jar, cover with vinegar, and let steep for a week or so. Strain out the leaves, and you have a gorgeous ruby-colored vinegar infused with the flavor of herbs. Salad, anyone?

Making Purple basil jelly is super-easy too - I have posted the recipe to our website. Enjoy!

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This is SO exciting. Last year, we purchased a few saffron bulbs from The Rosemary House, just for fun - I mean, isn't it a great idea to grow the world's most costliest spice in your backyard? These little plants are amazing! They are a fall-blooming crocus, and are extremely easy to grow! We just popped them in the ground last fall, and pretty much forgot about them until *this* fall, when I noticed they had come up and - yes - even had actual saffron to harvest! I'm going to plant LOTS more! If you're interested in growing your own, I highly recommend it - they're inexpensive to purchase, grow beautifully in most places in the US, and are practically no maintenance.

And - just to show you how naughty Donna's little horses are - on these gorgeous fall days we simply leave the door of the shop open, to enjoy the sunlight and the breezes. Well, in their morning perambulations, the little horses just stopped on in to say hi! Delilah is on the left, and Baron on the right. Ollie, our mastiff-mix dog, is in the background - the babies are bigger than he is now!

As most of you know, we offer various classes, mostly here on the farm. And we LOVE doing so! We keep thinking about a way to offer classes online to our many wonderful customers across the world...but have yet to come up with a great plan to do so. (There are only so many hours in the day unfortunately!) HOWEVER, we do get lots of emails from our (inter)national customers about classes, so I thought I'd post about a few options here.

Our friends Tina and Maryanne, of The Essential Herbal and Lancaster Soapworks, are offering a REALLY spectacular-sounding online soapmaking class! Check out the details here on Tina's blog - they are limiting the class to a certain number of students, so I highly recommend signing up very soon if you are interested.

We are teaching a class here on the farm about Homemade Natural Cleansers. The class draws heavily on an article I wrote for the Herb Quarterly in the Summer 2008 issue. (Did you guys know that I write a monthly column for that magazine, as well as feature articles??) Anyway - it does have some really great recipes in it, if you can find a copy at your local library I'd highly recommend it. Otherwise you can order a copy from their website. I also recommend 2 books on this subject:

The Naturally Clean Home by Karyn Siegel-Maier is my favorite - it's packed with great recipes that really work.

Clean House Clean Planet by Karen Logan is also great!

We also have a great recipe for homemade laundry soap on our website,and we DO plan to add more natural home cleanser recipes to our website soon, so stay tuned.....


Last, but not least - we do offer several natural dyeing classes here on the farm - we haven't yet offered one on rust-dyeing, but I *did* write a tutorial for Hobby Farm Home magazine on how to rust-dye fabrics. It's easy, fun, and a great way to turn rusty "junk" into art. Here are a few items that are dyed with rust (all of these can be found in my etsy store, by the way...)

We got a lovely product review from The Gerber Babies Blog - check it out!

A few housekeeping notes: The Soleil limited edition perfume is sold out!


We still have 2 spaces left in our November Soapmaking 101 class, and several slots in each in our Natural Dyeing and Natural Cleansers classes.

We are being blessed with a GORGEOUS fall. I guess we deserve it, after such a wet/hot/miserable spring and summer.

The harvest is in full swing here. The still is running every day, weather permitting. I've distilled the season's tender herbs - lemon verbena, eucalyptus, lemongrass - the more tropical herbs that grow here as annuals. Now I'll concentrate on the hardier herbs - peppermint, comfrey, mountain mint, etc. We had a crop failure of several herbs - lemon balm and chocolate mint. Which is bizarre, as normally they grow REALLY well here. go figure.

I'm also drying herbs, and making smudge sticks. The picture above shows sweetgrass, mountain mint, and white sage, just cut. I bundle some of each together and tie it with a rubber band, as shown below:


These are hung in our drying shed, until they're dry, but not TOO crispy/crunchy.
Then we remove the rubber band, tie the smudge together with natural-fiber (cotton or hemp) string, and they are done!

Here's another online tutorial about making smudge.

I've posted this recipe before, but it's so damn good I'm gonna post it again. I'm making it tonight, but, instead of sage, I used some leftover pesto (I had a pesto-making spree last night, and turned a laundry basket full of basil into delicious pesto in my freezer).

Enjoy!

Sage and Shallot Foccacia Bread

1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp. dry yeast
2 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. good olive oil
2 tsp. salt
about 12 shallots, roughly chopped
3 tbsp. chopped fresh sage leaves (or 3 tsp. dried crushed sage leaves)
1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
1 tbsp. freshly ground black pepper
3 1/2 cups flour (I used a mixture of white and wheat)

Combine water, yeast, and sugar into a large bowl, and let sit while you grate the cheese and chop the shallots, grate the cheese, and chop the sage.

Add oil, salt, shallots, sage, pepper, cheese and 1 cup flour to the yeast mixture, and stir until completely blended. Gradually add the rest of the flour until dough gathers into a ball. Knead for 4 or 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Coat dough with olive oil, and let rise until double. Punch down, then place on a greased cookie sheet or pizza pan - pat dough down into whatever shape you like, as long as it's about 1/2 inch thick. Let rise again, for about half an hour or 45 minutes.

Dimple the dough very deelpy with your fingers. Sprinkle the top of the bread with coarse sea salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Love to support your local farmers, AND eat great foods? Head to southern Iowa this Sunday, October 5th for a fantastic Farm Crawl! "Crawl" across six miles of countryside to visit six independently owned farms, and taste cheese, wine, fresh apples, see racing pigs, enjoy a corn maze, and SO much more!

As promised, here are some of the pictures from last week's Sample Sunday (Our big 10th birthday party).


Here is Mary DouBrava doing reiki - she kindly came out and offered free mini reiki sessions to anyone who wanted them!

Our friend Ryan and his uncle were selling their gorgeous hand-turned pens.


And our friend Nikki had her amazing handmade sterling silver jewelry for sale!


Here is Kristi, showing off some of her paper beads that she used making recycled junk mail - they are so gorgeous, you wouldn't believe they were just paper and glue!

Sally Kilkenny was selling her amazing handmade jams.

And Rachels wonderful stand of handmade jewelry!

More pictures to come......

My friend Tina has a REALLY great post about making your own elderberry tincture. If any of you have ripe elderberries, now is the time to make this wonderful and delicious herbal medicine. If it's not elderberry season where you live, I suggest reading this post anyway, because it is a really excellent tutoral for making your own herbal tintures. I know it seems like a very mystical thing, but making your own herbal medicines simply could NOT be easier. Truly, the ease and simplicity is one of my favorite parts of learning about herbal medicine. No special equpment is needed - it's very hands-on, forgiving, and down to earth.

For any of you interested in learning more about making your own herbal medicine, I highly recommend these books:

ANYTHING written by Rosemary Gladstar
Healing Wise by Susun Weed
The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook: A home manual, by James Green

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the great books out there - these are simply some tried-and-true ones to get your started on your journey of making your own salves, tinctures, teas, decoctions, compresses and more.

We'll be at the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market this Saturday - the weather promises to be gorgeous, and we look forward to a fantastic morning of Java Joe's latte's and people watching. :) If you'd like us to bring anything in particular, PLEASE do call or email us and let us know! We bring a wide variety of items, but it's very random....it's whatever we throw in the van late Friday afternoon.

In other news - we have NINE soleil perfumes left, and TWO Verbena Sunshine Soaps - so if you want one...grab 'em, as they're going fast!! :)

There are FOUR spots available for the Saturday, November 8th Soapmaking 101 class, and we are thinking of closing the Shea Butter Moisturizers class...we could perhaps take one or two more, but that's it, it's very close to full. So if you're interested in those, please sign up ASAP! We still have room in Natural Dyeing and Natural Home Cleansers.

Fall is here!

A customer forwarded us some of her favorite delicious fall recipes, and they sounded so great I'm posting them here for your enjoyment:

Roasted Corn Chowder
Cornmeal Pumpkin Muffins


And my friend Jill forwarded me this GREAT recipe for mini cornbread puddings. Oh, man, do these sound wonderful, or what? I make my own sour cream (it's very, VERY easy to do) using Jersey cream from our neighbors at Picket Fence Creamery, and use amazing organic cornmeal from Paul's Grains. They both make a HUGE difference in any recipe I use them in. Local and organic just *tastes* good, you know?

Mini Cornbread Puddings

We called these cornbread puddings -- not muffins -- because they're far moister and more tender than what you might expect, thanks to sour cream in the batter.

Makes 24

Butter, room temperature, for pan

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1 package (10 ounces) frozen corn kernels, thawed and patted dry

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack in upper third. Butter 24 mini muffin cups; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, whisk together egg, sour cream, and corn. Mix with flour mixture just until incorporated (do not overmix).

Dividing evenly, spoon batter into prepared muffin pan. Bake until tops have browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes in pan; turn out onto a cooling rack. Serve, or cool completely and store at room temperature in an airtight container, up to 2 days.

WOW. we had an AMAZING 10th birthday party here on the farm on Sunday. I mean....WOW.

I'll have pics, and blog more fully about it soon - meanwhile we have approximately nine million orders to pack and send. (give or take a few).

Check out this amazing tutorial on how to make your own natural fruit soda at home.

OH! And, we have about FIVE BARS of the Luxury Soap of the MOnth left. If you want them, grab them NOW. :)

Sunday, September 21st, 12-5 PM 10th BIRTHDAY BASH!

It's been TEN YEARS since we opened our doors. Help us celebrate with a FANTASTIC and action-packed 10 th Birthday Sample Sunday!

10% OFF ALL PURCHASES!!!

Guest Vendors:

Funkie Organics – funky hemp and stone jewelry (funkieorganics.com)

Kristi Poole – handmade paper beads

Nikki's Designs – handmade sterling silver jewelry

Sally Kilkenny – handmade jams & jellies

Mary DouBrava – Reiki sessions

Jill Beebout will be having free, 15 minute STORYTELLING at the top of every hour, beginning at 1 PM! Fun for the entire family.

HERBAL COOKING CONTEST

Are you a great cook? Bring your best dish and join us for a cooking contest and potluck on Sunday, Sept 21! Judging begins at 4 PM.

3 Categories: Herbal Breads, Herbal Desserts, Herbal Dish or Beverage.

Prizes given in each category:

1 st Place - $25.00 Prairieland Herbs Gift Certificate

2 nd Place - $15.00 Prairieland Herbs Gift Certificate

3 rd Place - $10.00 Prairieland Herbs Gift Certificate

Stay afterwards to share and sample the herbal delights!

Last week we had a group of 80 (!!!!!!) homeschool kids/parents visit our farm. it was a MADHOUSE for about and hour, then...whoosh.....they were gone. Mostly, the kids liked the dogs. I tried to get a picture of the mass pandemonium. :)


I don't recall there being a calico cat for sale on our website, but someone must have ordered one. :) Here is Violet being extremely cute, in a flat-rate priority mailbox. ;)

Here is our beloved "Crazy", aka Karla the Crazy Soapmaker, who makes the majority of soaps here at Prairieland Herbs. She's been making soaps professionally for 8 or 9 years, and is REALLY knowledgeable about what she does. A few times a year, she teaches really rockin soapmaking classes on our farm, and we're lucky she's going to teach not one but TWO soapmaking classes this fall!
Students make and take home their own 2 lb. batch of real, cold-process handmade soap. Soapmaking is amazing - it's art, science, and alchemy all in one procedure. You take fats, oils, and lye, and end up with this amazing bar of bubbly wonderful handmade soap! Magic!Students work in pairs, and class size is strictly limited to six participants, so Karla can ensure the best learning experience for everyone. Lye safety is emphasized. The recipe you use is easy to duplicate at home - no hard-to-find or expensive oils or ingredients are used.

The first class is already halfway full, so Karla's offering a second class in November. These classes truly do fill up quickly so please register soon! (We do not charge your card until the day of the class, just FYI.)

Our friend Fae at Faerie Made Soaps has some great pictures of the soapmaking process on her blog - check it out!

And now, for the listing of events happening this Sample Sunday (Sept. 21st, from 12-5) at Picket Fence Creamery!

They will be sampling: Caramel apple ice cream, cheese ball, elk sticks, fresh peanut butter, Two Sisters breads and salads, fresh local salsa, caramel apple pecan butter, fresh cheese curds, Iowa wines, and of course, "the best chocolate milk this side of the Milky Way!".

*5th Anniversary $5 lunch! Brats, fixin's, chips, milk or water, and ice cream! (Kids' meal is $3.)

*For the kids - pony rides in the pasture, see the calves, hay maze, FREE kittens, pencils, and posters!

*FREE! Picket Fence Creamery 5th Anniversary commemorative gift with your
purchase!

*Guest vendors - Penoach Winery, Prairie Moon Winery, Russ 'n' Franks BBQ, Watkins, and handmade snuggle blankets and wool scarves!


Super Deals: Fresh cheese curds, $3 a bag; 90% lean ground beef $3.49 lb. with 10 lb.
purchase; any large Pasquale's pizza, $4.99; fresh 1 1/2 lb. ham loaf, $5.99; fresh apple crisp and
quart ice cream, $10; 5 lb. bag local McIntosh apples for $5; and more in-store bargains!

Browse our store full of local foods from 90 Iowa families! Chemical free onions, tomatoes, garlic, pears, peaches,apples, zucchini and more!

It's our 10th BIRTHDAY in just one week. Can we say - WOW??

So, of course, we are having a fantastic all-out party, in conjunction with our September Sample Sunday, Sept. 21st from 12-5. Northern Praire Chevre and Picket Fence Creamery, our 2 neighboring farms, are also joining us, so this week several of myblog posts will detail what is going on for this great event. Today, we'll talk about what is happening at Northern Prairie Chevre.
Dance Arabesque from Des Moines and Benu Dance Troupe will perform in the front yard.

The Atlantean from Des Moines will have a variety of ethnic merchandise for sale.

Snus Hill Winery, Tassel Ridge Winery, La Vida Loca Winery and
Olde Main Brewery will give out samples of their wonderful wines and beers.

Relax with Shannon, Massage Therapist, is offering chair massages - $10/10 min.

Milton from Sheeder Farms will be grilling steak sandwiches for just $6!!

Mary Boyvey, Hoopnotica Certified instructor will be offering free classes on the hour, and have hoops available for all ages to try and/or purchase.

Pat from Randol Honey will be sampling hercreamed honey.

SALE: Creamy goat milk and honey soaps 2/$6! NEW- Dog Shampoo Bars and Canus – excellent for dry coats & flees!!

NEW – Just arrived – jewelry from Sun Creek Jewelry; beautiful and affordable. Delicious baked goods from Corn Crib Catering in Madrid. Stock up Sheeder Farms meats and eggs & variouscuts
of elk from Skeeter Creek Elk. Salad dressings, Vinaigrettes, Honey Mustard, Cape Cod Caviar, Chipotle Bleu Cheese dip from Appalachian Naturals. New products have arrived! Kids – enjoy the swings and sand box in the front yard.

Not many babies left, but they’re looking for your loving and hugs!! Tours of the barn to visit the girls thatmake this whole business possible! (Don’t forget the best guard dogs in the whole state too!!!)Come on into Miss Tillie’s for samples of our cheese and MUCH MORE!

Sorry gang - we won't be able to go to the Downtown Farmer's Market tomorrow - there is just TOO much rain predicted! :( See you there on the 27th!

Quiet day here. Humid - storms coming in tonight.

Doing a bit more painting - which really means: Move displays (involving grunting, swearing, and sometimes dropping things and breaking them. whoops). Stand a goggle and how DUSTY it is behind displays, and count how many lip balms have, over the years, rolled underneath them. (answer: many more than you would believe). Clean up dust, throw away old lip balms, wipe cobwebs off walls. Get ready to paint. Paint. Let dry. Paint again. Let dry. Clean off entire display, mop floor. Move display back (more swearing and grunting).

As you can see, it's a fairly involved process.

This afternoon, I'm bottling hair vinegars. I've made samples of the Red Rose and Lemon Balm, and the Rosemary and Lavender. If you're ordering in the next day or two, and want to try one of those, just let us know; we'll add it to your order, no charge. :)

There are 4 dogs alseep here in the shop, on the floor (each on their own blankie), and 3 cats.

Last Saturday, Donna and Maggie hosted a bus tour of 52 folks from Oskaloosa, IA. We actually did lots of these tours throughout the summer - I'm not sure how many, but at least a dozen.
The huge tour buses always look a little surreal, parked out in the middle of the country!!!


Donna usually leads the groups on a garden tour, then Maggie helps them in the shop and answers questions. Corralling 50 people is pretty much impossible, so basically they end up doing what they want. They're nearly always kind and polite, and enjoy the dogs (you can see in these pictures that the dogs sure enjoy all the company). Then they all get back on the bus and head off to the next farm to visit!

NEW SOAPS! We have a new soapmaker, the wonderful Terri, owner of "Biscuit's Boutique Soaps". (Biscuit is her cat's name - isn't that cute?). She is from Des Moines, and makes wonderful essential-oil blend soaps. Now, nobody panic - Karla is not going anywhere! She's still making her amazing soaps and shampoo bars for us. She's just being kept very, VERY busy keeping you all in soap! So Terri is going to make a few new varities for us as well. I promise you'll love her soaps. They smell great, have cute labels, and have huge lather!

Speaking of cuteness. Here is the view from the front door of the shop, taken the other day. Donna lets her mini horses out to graze every morning for a few hours. They pretty much wander anywhere they want, and don't *usually* go too far. This day they decided the grass right outside the front door of the shop was pretty tasty. In this picture we see Contessa (the white one), Baron (the smaller brown with white markings), and Dutchess (Baron's mom).

Delilah is the oldest baby, she is a RIOT. She is SO inquisitive - she loves to investigate everything, and often does so by tasting things. (She loves to nibble - EVERYTHING). She has been known to pick up tools or items and just...carry them off. Why? We don't know. I think she is part puppy. Anyway, all the rest of the herd calmly grazed near the shop, paying no attention to the open door. Not Delilah. She looked up, saw the door, and walked right on in. What a funny girl! (She didn't stay long, just long enough for me to get this quick picture).

A few snapshots from last Saturday. Donna and Zach, our faithful summer minion, um, er.....slaveboy, no wait.....WORKER, that's it....anyway, Donna and Zach are painting the walls of our shop! For those of you that have never visited - our shop is awful tiny. It's 20 feet by 30 feet, and Donna and I built it ourselves (with help from a retired electrician/handyman friend). It holds our office, kitchen, and entire retail area. So...there's alot of stuff in a very small space, which makes painting really interesting. We move things from a section of the wall, paint, wait for it to dry, paint again, wait for it to dry again, then move everything back. Repeat.

Zach was, I believe, mildly horrified to have to paint walls PINK, but he did the job with enthusiasm and gusto.


John was constructing a manger for the mini-horses (six of them sharing the one existing one we had was just tooooooo many!).

Which ended up looking a bit like a coffin!!!
And last but not least....meet our new puppy, a rat terrier mix, named Monk! He loooooove the other doggies and kitties, and was terrified of Beaker until yesterday, when the 2 of them started this new game where they sort of harass each other. He goes up to Beaker and barks, Beaker lowers his head and sort of "fake" chases him off. Repeat.

(To be clear - Beaker is FULLY CAPABLE of chasing this little guy down and pinching the dickens out of him if he wants. He's a goose that's large and in charge. This truly is a game the 2 of them have devised).

Let's put aside the fact, for a moment, that it is 8:00 on a Saturday night and I am on my computer, updating our website and blogging. (I'm sipping Templeton Rye, a fantastic locally-produced whiskey, while I'm doing it, which I am pretty sure adds at least 10 "cool points" to my mojo-meter....)

ANYWAY. We have so many amazing things going on this month for our 10th birthday bash. I just gotta get 'em online. So, we're starting with this fantastic, LIMITED EDITION natural perfume, made by our friend Tina at Faerie Made Soaps. This girl is rockin' with the natural perfumery. (Also she is celebrating her sixth year of business. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!) This perfume is called "Soleil" - we have 30 of these in stock, and when they're gone, they're gone. So, if you're into a sexy, sultry blend of coriander, citruses, vanilla, jasmine and more...welllll.....stock up on this fantastic perfume. You won't be sorry.

Fall 2008 Prairieland Herbs Class Schedule is NOW ONLINE! We're accepting signups now.
We've got a GREAT selection of classes. You can learn to make soap, use exotic dyestuffs to dye silk scarves (like the ones above), learn how to make your own natural non-toxic home cleansers, or make your own fantastic customized shea butter moisturizers. Class space is limited on most, so....sign up now!

Luxury Soap of the Month has arrived! This month's selection - a sunny, bright, lemon-verbena-based soap that is sooooo citrus-ey it makes your mouth pucker. We have about 50 bars on hand and when they're gone, they're gone! ENJOY!

Stay tuned....big news ahead. Did you realize that Prairieland Herbs turns TEN this month?! We have all kinds of surprises and specials planned......

Yesterday at noon, we were ROASTING. Hot sun, nearly 100% humidity, just.....HOT. Today it's about 65 degrees, overcast,with a breeze,and we are wearing jeans and long sleeves. Ah, it must be nearing fall!


Anyway - we wanted to share this great recipe with you. It was given to us by our friend Jen -she uses it as a treatment for psoraisis on her scalp, and says it works beautifully! We know many of our customers have skin conditions, so we thought we'd share the recipe with you. And wasn't it kind of Jen to share her recipe?? We sure think so!

here goes:

Jen's Hair Oil (treatment for psoriasis)

1 oz jojoba oil
5-7 drops each juniper, tea tree, rosemary, and thyme essential oils

Combine ingredients; apply as necessary to scalp.

We do have all the essential oils that you need for this recipe, on our website. Her recipe specifies jojoba oil, but i do suspect you could use olive oil as the base as well....

This recipe will be permanently archived on our website - here.

Another hard day's lounging at Prairieland herbs.....mmmm laptops are warm, says Sassy!

Want FREE prairieland herbs products....AND to visit a super-cool and really interesting blog??

Check out our friend Sara's blog - Walk Slowly, Live Wildly. We've had the pleasure of meeting her in person, and I really DO love her blog. informative, well-written, thought-provoking....yep, great stuff.

She's (lucky for us!) a fan of our products, and so she's doing a little give-away of the items seen above. Check out her blog, click around, bookmark it so you can come back and visit it again later, then enter yourself in the product giveaway. How cool is that?

I just made a fresh batch of Magic Mud (our fantastic luxurious facial masque/cleanser that's loaded with green clay, ground herbs, jojoba microdermabrasion beads and pure essential oils of carrot seed, sandalwood, palmarosa and jasmine absolute), and.....we made at least 30 little mini-jars to give out as free samples. We have them in the sample basket at the shop, so if you're in the area and want to try it, come on it. Internet customers, if you are placing an order in the next few days and want to get one of these little freebies with your order, simply make a note of it in the "customer comments" section of the shopping cart. Offer good until the muds run out :)

5:02 PM - Just leaving work...we have EIGHT Moroccan Rose soaps left!!!!

It's elderberry season! I'm about to gather elderberries and make my yearly batches of elderberry jam and syrup, yum yum!! Check out this great recipe for elderberry mead on our website.

And here's some great information about how healthy elderberries are for you!

and check out this great site about nothing but elderberries. fantastic information, great photos, and the recipes! wow!

$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!