We have a new website specifically to promote our Sample Sundays and other 3 farm events! Please bookmark this site and check back monthly! We will be updating with info about each Sample Sunday as it becomes available.

http://centraliowasmallfarms.com/

(photo of one of last year's Sample Sunday events at Prairieland Herbs)

People in the shop are ALWAYS asking about natural headache relief. Marge Clark from Nature's Gift wrote this great article about using essential oils to help relieve headaches. enjoy!

Aromatherapy for Natural Headache Relief

Check out our friend Tina's blog for some AMAZING pictures of distillation with her gorgeous glass still. (We're going to get one of these pretty glass stills this spring, I think.....)

is it true? could it really be...spring?!?!?!

Week 7 of the Herb Blog Contest Featuring Aquarian Bath

Week 7 of the Herb Blog Contest Featuring Aquarian Bath

Welcome to week 7 of the herbal blog contest! This week we are featuring Aquarian Bath your source for all natural gentle soaps, herbal balms, salves, deodorants, and spa pillows. Aquarian Bath's soaps, balms and salves are either unscented or lightly scented with only pure essential oils. This week, enter to win you choice of a Lavender Spearmint Lip balm in a 0.15 oz tube OR a Lemon Lime Lip Balm in a 0.25 oz slide tin, and 20% off on their next order with Aquarian Bath.

The Lavender Spearmint Balm is made with Extra virgin olive oil, Shea butter, Beeswax, Castor oil, Spearmint and Lavender essential oil.



The Lemon Lime lip balm is made with Coconut oil, Shea Butter, Castor oil, Beeswax, Jojoba, Lime and Lemon Essential oils, and Zinc Oxide, a mineral used in sunscreens.



To win one of these lovely balms, enter by posting a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning! Entrants must include their email address to be eligible to win. US and Canadian residents are eligible. You can receive additional chances to win in the following ways:

* Tweet about this blog contest on twitter.com including @aquarianbath in the tweet. Come back and log your tweet with a comment to receive 1 additional entry.
* Visit and join Aquarian Bath's fan page on Facebook. Leave a comment so we know you joined to receive 1 additional entry.
* Make a comment about your favorite item from Aquarian Bath's etsy or 1000markets stores to receive 1 additional entry.
* Make a purchase with Aquarian bath to on etsy or 1000markets to receive 3 additional entries.

*The following blogs are also participating, so stop over to enter with them for additional chances to win AND the chance to explore some cool blogs.
Aquarian Bath
Make a purchase from one of these 9 host blog's online stores to receive 2 additional entries and leave a comment at the host's blog's contest:
The Essential Herbal
Herbs from the Labyrinth
Patti's Potions
PrairieLand Herbs
The Rosemary House
Nature's Gift
Torchsong Studio
SunRose Aromatics
Garden Chick

One lucky winner from one of the 10 host blogs will be contacted to receive 2 free soaps of their choice along with their lip balm and 20% off coupon, so be sure to visit and enter at all 10 blogs.



The winners will be announced at the Aquarian Bath blog when the results are in from all participating blogs. Enjoy.

Keep coming back and keep entering. We have some great prizes coming up, and we'll be having the contests until the middle of May!

Last Week's Winners:

The Essential Herbal - Linda Grant
Herbs from the Labyrinth - emrosser
Patti's Potions - Amanda Huye
PrairieLand Herbs - Heather Anne
The Rosemary House - Julie Dees
Nature's Gift - - Jody Sullivan
Torchsong Studio Green Womyn
SunRose Aromatics - Julie Dees (lucky girl!)
Garden Chick - Cherry Devereaux
Aquarian Bath - Comfrey Cottages

Our friend Roe at Sun Rose Aromatics is offering the most AMAZING giveaway on her blog.

Here's the info:

This month in honor of Easter, our Give a Way::
which represents 'new beginnings', new growth ..

Our Happy Easter Give-A-Way this month ::

Post and leave a comment on this blog post before April 8th, 2009 for your chance to win.

Our drawing this month will award 1 lucky winner.

Please be sure to include the following:
- your email address (so we may contact you)
- your name

The winner will receive:

- Chakra Balancing Beginner's Guide
& the Chakra Synergies

The drawing will be held on April 7th, 2009, the winners will be announced on April 8th, 2009. Please visit her blog to sign up!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We have a copy of Roe's Book "Chakra Balancing, a Beginner's Guide" and it's an amazing book - small but packed full of great information. TRULY worth purchasing, if you haven't already. And all of her essential oils are top-notch!

PS. Aquarian Bath is the winner of last week's contest - Just drop us an email at shop at prairielandherbs dot com to let us know your address, and what kind you'd like! :)

Welcome to week 6 of the herbal blog contest! This week, enter to win a .15 oz. Healing Wand! These healing wands contain herbally infused certified organic olive oil, locally produced beeswax, vitamin E, essential oils of tea tree and lavender, and are the perfect size for your pocket, purse, or diaper bag. They work wonders on cuts, scrapes, rashes, burns, dry skin, hangnails, etc.

To win one of these useful and natural healing balms, simply enter by posting a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning!!! Don’t forget to include your email addy so we can contact the winner! The following blogs are also participating, so stop over to enter with them for additional chances to win AND the chance to explore some cool blogs.


Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Natures Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal
Garden Chick
SunRose Aromatic
Herbs from the Labyrinth
Patti's Potions

Keep coming back and keep entering. We have some great prizes coming up, and we'll be having the contests until the middle of May!

Can you believe it's time for another Sample Sunday? And this time we have FIVE local businesses - it's our biggest event yet!

Sunday, April 5th, 12-5


At Picket Fence Creamery:

EASTER EGG HUNT IN THE PASTURE!

Ages 4 and under at 12:30 p.m. Ages 5 and up at 1:00

Pony rides will follow! Also hay maze, live bunnies, 14 bottle calves, & free palm branch for each child (while supply lasts)!

Local food samples: Very berry ice cream, cheese curds, buffalo summer sausage, Neva's cheese ball, fresh made natural peanut butter, strawberry muffins, tortellini, creamed honey, salsa, Iowa wines, and more!

Guest vendors: Prairie Moon Winery of Ames, and Taste of the Town Salsa, Waukee. Music provided by HB Productions of Altoona.

Lunch is served! Picket Fence sloppy joes, kettle cooked chips, milk, and ice cream - ONLY $5!

Super Deals: Our own ham loaf, $5.99 for 1 1/2 lb. loaf, our own 90% lean ground beef $3.49/lb. with 10 lb. puchase, fresh apple crisp and quart ice cream $10, buy local salsa and get a bag of fresh tortilla chips for $1. More in-store specials!

Featured Foods: Easter egg cut out sugar cookies (freeze well), deviled eggs, sweet breads, fresh local spinach, fresh local black walnuts, fruit crisps, 9" deep dish lard crust pies.


At Northern Prairie Chevre:

Celebrate Spring with Northern Prairie Chevre
Meet Chef Cal from Mojo’s on 86th who will sample several items he creates with our chevre!

Snus Hill Winery and Tassel Ridge Winery will sample their award-winning wines.

Louise, our Chicken Chat note card creator, will be available to show you her cards with women to women social expression messages. Delightful sayings!

Beautiful Christmas Gift jewelry from Sun Creek Jewelry!

NEW- Denison Mustards several flavors. Stock up on Sheeder Farms meats and eggs & various cuts of elk from Skeeter Creek Elk. Sample Randol Honey creamed honey.

Kids - enjoy the swings and sand box in the front yard. Meet our babies! 30+ babies to amuse you with their antics and loving personalities. Come in to Miss Tillie’s for samples of our cheese and MUCH MORE!



At Lake Robbins Ballroom:

Sample Sunday at Lake Robbins Ballroom • 1-4pm

Flowers by Donna Jean will have a display here.

FREE Samples - Food • some of our Wedding Choices • Picnic Specials • Banquets,
Sample Wedding Display & Information, FREE sample dance lessons 2-4pm

Regular dance lesson - basic Tango 4-5pm - $5 per person

Dance Big Band 6-10pm $8 cover (Everett Boyer)

We’re open every weekend! Fri. & Sat. varies (dances,weddings, banquets)

BUT every Sunday is a Live Big Band Music 6-10pm
New dance lessons start April 19th 3-4pm Basic 4-5pm Basic II


And our newest Sample Sunday business - Flowers by Donna Jean!

215 South Main • Downtown …Woodward
Not just a full service, flower shop…
Stop in & visit our renovated 1800s, building, complete with restored ceilings and hard wood floors. Browse over 3000 sq. feet of period & Shabby chic furniture. Beautiful garden art, antiques & collectibles.

Featuring local artist…. Michael “White Feather” with his Native American Lakota art work, Moon Dance Jewelry by Kelly Moore, Art Ciccotti, Hand Blown glass. We will also be handing out carnations & Easter Candy for the kids.
Tour Hours: Noon - 5 p.m. • Phone: 515-438-2557


OF COURSE we at Prairieland Herbs will be having a "Spring Sale" - 25% off all salves, balms and buzz off wands. Our infamous sample basket is stuffed to the brim with free samples of bath salts, soaps, and shampoo bars. Kids, visit the mini horses, pet the pooches and kitties! Check out our class schedule - shea butter moisturizers, herb gardening, rust-dyeing, soapmaking 101 and MUCH more!

We've delivered goods to TWO new Iowa locations. A few weeks ago we took a HUGE selection of goods to "Halo" - billed as a Modern Salon, it's a COOL place! Located in the Roosevelt Shopping Center on 42nd St. in Des Moines. Des Moines folks, Halo now carries the WIDEST selection of Prairieland Herbs goods in Des Moines - stop by there to see if they carry your favorite products - if they don't, feel free to ask them to! They are excited about all of our products, and want to provide them to you!

Second, we just shipped a big box of goodies to Once Again Kids Closet in Council Bluffs, Iowa - a kids consignment store (and more). They should be there next week!

Friday Freebie Double Header!

We Friday March 27th to Thursday April 2nd.Featured this week are moisturizing Lip Balms from Patti’s Potions Natural Soaps, Ltd. Did you know that most lip balms contain petroleum products that are NOT eco-friendly? This is your opportunity to experience fine natural oils in your lip care experience. Ingredients: calendula infused olive oil, shea butter, natural beeswax, jojoba, castor, & vitamin E.


To win TWO of these luscious lip balms, simply enter by posting a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning!!! PLEASE - Don’t forget to include your email address so we can contact the winner! The following blogs are also participating, so stop over to enter with them for additional chances to win AND the chance to explore some cool blogs.


Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Natures Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal
Garden Chick
SunRose Aromatic
Herbs from the Labyrinth
Patti's Potions

Happy Freebie Friday everyone!

Congratulations go out to Kelly Lake - you are the winner of your choice of 3 solid perfumes! Drop us an email at shop at prairielandherbs dot com and let us know which 3 you'd like!

This week's Friday Freebie is a tin of our talc-free body powder. These are wonderful for the upcoming summer months. Winner may choose any scent they like from our range!

If you'd like to win a tin of body powder - you must leave a comment on today's blog post.

Rules:
1) One entry per person.
2) You must have a registered ID to post - if your post shows up under "anonymous", we don't know who you are, and therefore you can't win.
3) You have until the next Thursday at midnight, CST, to enter your comment.
4) Winner will be announced the following Friday - you must check back to see if it's you!
5) International folks are welcome. We ship Prairieland Herbs items all over the world, so we'll ship our "Friday freebie" anywhere too!
6) Each eligible post will be assigned a number, and we'll use a free online random number generator to determine the winner.

As a special little spring surprise, we're offering 25% off ALL our salves (5 varieties, 3 sizes of each variety) AND 25% off our healing wands (both sizes) AND Buzz off Wand! Sale prices good through April 1! Stock up Green Thumb Gardeners Salve, Healing Salves and Wands, and Buzz Off Wands for spring and summertime.

I just signed up to win a free advance copy of Susan Wittig Albert's new (and yet-to-be-released) book Wormwood! For those of you not familiar with this author, she writes a fun herbal mystery series set in Texas. Check out her great blog, and you can enter the drawing too!



We've had spectacular weather lately! Sandals and t-shirt weather. LOVE IT! Ollie, however, thiks anything above 60-degrees is hot. See him pant?



We even have green grass!


Which will make the equine gang very happy, they're tired of being cooped up in their boring old pen. Little Delafino here loves to nibble at anything that comes in his reach - fingers included. He's such a cutie!

Here they are telling me quite clearly - "Put that flashy thing away, and make with the hay, food-lady".

Happy Spring!!!

Our friend Tina at the Essential Herbal Magazine has offered a FREE downloadable PDF of her very GREEN issue focusing on a more self-sufficient lifestyle. As she says "In honor of the first day of spring and the White House putting in an herb and vegetable garden, we put up a new
free issue - the one we did last year that focused on green living with a collage of Victory Garden posters on the cover. The Essential Herbal is not an on-line magazine. This one sold out, so we put it up here for you to check out!"

Click here to download this great issue - guaranteed to get you thinking "green" thoughts for spring.

Our Friday Freebie double header continues, with this week's Herb Blog Group contest!

Toronto Girl was last week's lucky winner!
Roe from Sun Rose Aromatics will be contacting you to get your mailing address!)


For the week between Friday, March 20 and Thursday, March 26, you can enter simply by entering a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning a sampler of hand-blended herbal teas from HerbsfromtheLabyrinth.com, including one each of the following: Moontime Tea, Lover's Tea, Spring in My Step, FemininiTea, Dandy Lion Tea, Hush-A-Bye, Strong As Nails, SereniTea, SmarTea, DigestiviTea, Nursing Mother Tea, Endo-Liver Tea, Love Your Liver Tea, and Mid-Summer Tea.

HerbsfromtheLabyrinth.com has a wide range of herbal products to choose from.


The following blogs are also participating, so stop over to enter with them for additional chances to win AND the chance to explore some cool blogs.

SunRose Aromatics
Herbs from the Labyrinth
Patti’s Potions
Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Nature's Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal
Garden Chick

Happy Freebie Friday!

Last week's winner of one 2 oz. jar of Ache Relief Rub is Sara from Claremont, Newhampshire! Sara, drop us an email with your mailing address, and we'll ship it right out!
This week's Friday Freebie is a set of 3 of our solid perfumes (your choice of scents). These are a fun and affordable way to enjoy a variety of scents. I like to mix them, myself.... a bit of patchouli and hint of lavender....ylang-ylang and rose... you can have a different combo every day if you like.

If you'd like to win a set of 3 of these perfumes - you must leave a comment on today's blog post.

Rules:
1) One entry per person.
2) You must have a registered ID to post - if your post shows up under "anonymous", we don't know who you are, and therefore you can't win.
3) You have until the next Thursday at midnight, CST, to enter your comment.
4) Winner will be announced the following Friday - you must check back to see if it's you!
5) International folks are welcome. We ship Prairieland Herbs items all over the world, so we'll ship our "Friday freebie" anywhere too!
6) Each eligible post will be assigned a number, and we'll use a free online random number generator to determine the winner.

And for those of you that don't know - our most excellent buds at Soul-Flower.com carry two custom scents of our perfume - they're the only vendors in the world to have our "Patchouli Soul" and "Patchouli Flower" solid perfumes. If you're a patchouli fan, you must check them out!

I won!! I "follow" my cool friend (and owner of The Soap Dish - an amazing soapmaking supply company) Rebecca on Twitter - she always posts information and interesting info on green packaging and living. And as a bonus, every Friday she does a fun giveaway from people on Twitter. I was lucky enough to win this great book - Smart Soapmaking. It wasn't one I'd read before - but now I'm glad it's on my bookshelf. It's down-to-earth, no-nonsense, and packed with useful and practical info. My favorite part? It's international! measurements are given in both metric and "customary", AND has an interernational list of suppliers. Brilliant, and long-overdue.

So, in short, check out this great book, and follow Rebecca on Twitter...you'll learn alot and have a chance to win some cool stuff too!

Spring 2009 Prairieland Herbs class schedule is announced!

Want to learn to make soap?
Or perhaps do some rust-dyeing?

Make Shea Butter Moisturizers?

Or perhaps enjoy some mother-daughter fun, making bath salts?


Register online for these classes - and more!

It's another Freebie Friday Double Header! Congrats to last week's winner - Linda D!

This week (#3) our herbal blog contest swings over to SunRose Aromatics, where Roe whips up the most delightful of aromatherapy and pampering products. For the week between Friday, March 13 and Thursday, March 19, you can enter simply by posting a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning!!!
Here's the prize:Facial Scrub w/ Organic Liquid Soap Set:
Pamper your face with all natural ~
* apricot kernel meal
* organic liquid castile soap
Mix in the palm of your hand & then apply to your face.
A wonderful exfoliate!

The following blogs are also participating, so stop over to enter with them for additional chances to win AND the chance to explore some cool blogs.


Herbs from the Labyrinth
Patti’s Potions
Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Nature's Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal
Garden Chick - Where the winners from week #2 will be listed :-)
SunRose Aromatics

Keep coming back and keep entering. We have some great prizes coming up, and we'll be having the contests til the middle of May!

It's Freebie Friday (who said Friday the 13th can't be lucky?)! Congratulations to pigbook1 and Gracee - you are the winners of last week's giveaway, our healing wands. Drop us an email (to shop at prairielandherbs dot com) with your address and we'll send them right out!




This week's freebie is a 2 oz. jar of our Ache Relief rub - an soothing blend of arnica-infused oil and a potent essential oil blend of peppermint, rosemary, thyme, ginger and cinnamon. This giveaway is inspired by my recent desire to attain a better level of fitness...and the ensuing soreness (DAMN those one-legged pushups!). So I speak from experience here when I say 1) this stuff works, and 2) it's just one of those things you should have in your herbal medicine chest, because eventually, you WILL need it. Haven't we all had a time when we over-exerted our muscles (moving house, spring gardening, raking leaves, shoveling snow, etc.)?

If you'd like to win a jar of our ache relief rub - you must leave a comment on today's blog post.

Rules:
1) One entry per person.
2) You must have a registered ID to post - if your post shows up under "anonymous", we don't know who you are, and therefore you can't win.
3) You have until the next Thursday at midnight, CST, to enter your comment.
4) Winner will be announced the following Friday - you must check back to see if it's you!
5) International folks are welcome. We ship Prairieland Herbs items all over the world, so we'll ship our "Friday freebie" anywhere too!
6) Each eligible post will be assigned a number, and we'll use a free online random number generator to determine the winner.

Join Prairieland Herbs, Picket Fence Creamery, and Lake Robbins Ballroom for an afternoon of free fun in the country! Picket Fence Creamery is sampling Girl Scout cookie Thin Mint ice cream, tortellini salad, shoo-fly pie, 10-grain bread, Neva's famous cheese ball, cheese curds and chocolate milk, elk sticks, buffalo summer sausage, Taste of the Town salsa, Iowa wines, and more! (Wow, I think I gained weight just typing that. Sounds delicious though doesn't it?)



Prairieland Herbs has a sample basket chock-full of handmade soaps, shampoo bars and milk baths, and will be giving free samples of Peppermint Foot Soak to anyone who heads on down to Lake Robbins Ballroom for their.....


......FREE sample dance lessons! (available from 2 - 4 pm - after that, they will have their regular dance lesson - basic Swing 4-5 PM, for $5 per person). You can make a whole day of it and stay for the Dance Big Band 6-10 pm $8 cover (Cecil Stanley)

Should be a fun afternoon for everyone - bring your friends, bring your family, and discover the delights of rural Dallas County!

Okay, so, just to get this out of the way, I fully blame Jill for getting Prairieland Herbs on Facebook. I resisted, she insisted, and she won - and thank goodness, cuz she is right. Facebook is fun!

See, the best part about our job is - YOU. Our customers, loyal readers, supporters, friends. You allow us to do what we love - play in the dirt, grow herbs, make cool herbal stuff. And besides that - you're all just a great bunch of folks. Interesting, kind, trustworthy, funny, and just plain COOL. Most of you we know only by name or email - if you were nearby we'd love to see you, but you're all over the world! So phone calls and emails are our main forms of contact. Many of you we have known for years, and have been privileged to see your kids grow up, hear about the news and changes in your life, and just generally get to know you.

But with facebook - now we can share pictures! We get to see you ! So, c'mon gang - join up. Here is our Prairieland Herbs Fanpage - Join if you like. (I'm still very, very new at this Facebook thing, so please bear with me while I figure it out.)


I'm also working on some other projects, to give those of you across the world a better visual look at Prairieland Herbs. We've got 10+ years of product, farm, and garden photos, and I'm slowly (10 pics a day) adding them to our flickr account.Then my next goal is to work on a couple of virtual tours, using Smilebox (maybe - anyone have any better ideas let me know, ok?), - of our gardens, workspace, etc.

But for now - time to go to work, orders to pack, stuff to make. See y'all on Facebook!

Our customers are the kindest, most interesting and generous folks in the whole wide world.

Really.

Angela is one of our favorite people! We've never met her in person, but have talked to her via phone and email, and she always sends us the CUTEST cards, decorated with stickers and made of gorgeous recycled papers. She's so great. :) And just when we thought she couldn't be any cooler....she sends us THIS:


(note cute stickers and adorable handwritten note!)


It's a box of the most divine, amazing, succulent, box of DATES! Four varieties - from her business, The Date People! They specialize in rare and unusual varieties - frankly, I had no idea there were so many varieties of dates. She sent us 4 varieties, all carefully labeled (see pic below), and they are all delightfully different in scent, taste and texture. Can you believe what a kind and generous (and yummy) gift?

So, thanks Angela - you have made us at Prairieland Herbs very spoiled and happy. YUM!!!

Freebie Friday Double Header!



Herb Blog Contest - Week 2

For the week between Friday, March 6 and Thursday, March 12, you can enter simply by entering a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning Fairyland Cookie Cutter and Fairyland Recipe Card. Each cookie recipe comes with 1 "friend of the fairies" fairy cookie cutter and fairy sprinkles. Cutters include bird, dragonfly, fairy, gnome, flower, butterfly – she’ll choose one for you!

Garden Chick has a delightful selection of products that are either created by Karen or something she found on her adventures and loves enough to share!

The following blogs are also participating, so stop over to enter with them for additional chances to win AND the chance to explore some cool blogs.

SunRose Aromatics
Herbs from the Labyrinth
Patti’s Potions
Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Nature's Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal
Garden Chick


Last week's winner - of a subscription to The Essential Herbal - is WifeMotherManiac! Tina will be contacting you to get your address!

As some of you know, I (Maggie) am a writer for Herb Quarterly magazine. In the current issue,I have an article about "green"gardening (ironic, no?), and I talk alot about re-using items you already have, or scavenging things from craig's list and freecycle. I mention our little greenhouse as an example - It was actually given to us, years ago - an older woman we knew was no longer able to use it, and wanted it to have a good new home. Her husband had built it for her, using primarily recycled window frames and ingeneuity. It's an adorable little greenhouse and has given many people years of use - while keeping loads of windows out of the landfills!

Kate, an HQ reader, wrote to me asking for pictures of our little greenhouse. I dug this out from our archives. If I can find better ones, I'll post them later, but for now, Kate (and all other curious HQ readers) - here it is!

Happy Freebie Friday!!!

Rosemary (sunflower seed) and ikkinlala are the winners of our Magic Mud giveaway! Drop us an email at shop at prairielandherbs dot com with your addresses and we'll send them right out!

This week, we'll give away some Healing Wands, as that was another much-requested item.

These wands are great! Our healing salve works beautifully on rashes, mosquito or bug bites, scrapes, sores, sunburn, heat burn, athlete's foot - well, in short, just about everything. We'll give away 2 of our .5 oz. tubes of this Healing Wand. Oh, they work great for pets too - in my house I keep on tube marked "people" and one marked "pets". :)

If you'd like to win these a healing wand- you must leave a comment on today's blog post.

Rules:
1) One entry per person.
2) You must have a registered ID to post - if your post shows up under "anonymous", we don't know who you are, and therefore you can't win.
3) You have until the next Thursday at midnight, CST, to enter your comment.
4) Winner will be announced the following Friday - you must check back to see if it's you!
5) International folks are welcome. We ship Prairieland Herbs items all over the world, so we'll ship our "Friday freebie" anywhere too!
6) Each eligible post will be assigned a number, and we'll use a free online random number generator to determine the winner.


It's amazingly beautiful and sunny here. It was 75 degrees yesterday! Today it's 60 and sunny. We're beginning to believe that spring might actually be around the corner. Of course, we tend to get our heavest snowstorms and biggest blizzards in March and April, so....I'm sure we've got a bit of "weather" coming our way yet.....

Our friend at Des Moines Adult Ed have asked us to share their great lineup of spring gardening classes with you - including a class taught by us! Check them out! (Click on the graphic above to see it larger)

So, the other day my grandpa (who lives on the farm with my mom) was diagnosed with gout - in both his little pinky fingers.

He was most disgusted, as he said, because "that's an old folk's disease".

(note: Grandpa will be 90 in May. How I love that man!)

So, at excellent suggestion from the Nature's Gate website, I whipped him up some customized "Gout-B-Gone" using our St. John's Wort oil and the essential oils she recommends.  And my grandpa says it really works!

So I just thought I'd post this, in case anyone else is looking for some relief from gout. 

Friday Freebie DOUBLE HEADER!!!

For the next 10 weeks, Prairieland Herbs will be participating in a SUPER COOL Herb Blog Group Contest! A group of 12 herb businesses have banded together, and every Friday a different one will offer a giveaway on their blog. So make the rounds, click on all the links below, and increase your chances of winning. And don't forget to come back every Friday for a new giveaway! This week's Herb Blog Giveaway is from The Essential Herbal!

For the week between Friday, February 27 and Thursday, March 5 you can enter simply by entering a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning a full year’s subscription to The Essential Herbal Magazine! The Essential Herbal is written by, for, and about herbie people and the things they love. It is a grassroots publication that talks about the things you want to know when it comes to herbs.

The following blogs are also participating, so stop over to enter with them for additional chances to win AND the chance to explore some cool blogs. If you are already a subscriber, we’ll just add the free year on the end. Be sure to leave an email addy in your response so that we can reach you if you win!

Possum Creek Herb Farm

Blessings of an Herbwyfe

Garden Chick ***

SunRose Aromatics ***

Herbs from the Labyrinth ***

Patti’s Potions ***

PrairieLand Herbs ***

Aquarian Bath ***

The Rosemary House ***

Natures Gift ***

Torchsong Studio ***

The Essential Herbal ***

*** These blogs will be having contests for the next 10 weeks. Be sure to come back!

Happy Freebie Friday everyone! :)

Last week's winners are - Denise Muller, and our friend Sandy Thompson! ladies, please email us at shop at prairielandherbs dot com and let us know which kind of Botanical Bath Salts you'd each like!

And for this week's freebie - you spoke, and we listened. It's our wonderful Magic Mud!!


This "mud" is gentle concoction of ground herbs, clays, glycerine, and essential oils is a wonderful exfoliating facial cleanser, OR it can be used as a facial masque. The choice is yours. :)

Let's give away TWO of these to some lucky winners....

If you'd like to win these bath salts- you must leave a comment on today's blog post.

AND! Another twist this week. Are there any items, gift sets, or anything in general you'd love Prairieland Herbs to make? A product in a different package or size? We always get our best ideas from customers - truth be told, we've hardly had to think of what to make next since we opened our doors nearly 11 years ago - you, our wonderful customers, have always had such great requests and suggestions. We just do our best to listen to you. So here's your chance to give us suggestions!

Rules:
1) One entry per person.
2) You must have a registered ID to post - if your post shows up under "anonymous", we don't know who you are, and therefore you can't win.
3) You have until the next Thursday at midnight, CST, to enter your comment.
4) Winner will be announced the following Friday - you must check back to see if it's you!
5) International folks are welcome. We ship Prairieland Herbs items all over the world, so we'll ship our "Friday freebie" anywhere too!
6) Each eligible post will be assigned a number, and we'll use a free online random number generator to determine the winner.

Are you tired of photos yet?

Our good friend Mary Swalla Holmes came over Tuesday to take some photos of us to end up on the Women, Food and Agriculture network homepage. They turned out great, and Mary generously offered her permission to share them with you!

Marge at Nature's Gift just did a great blog post about using essential oils to treat head lice. We've gotten this question before, and are glad to have her information to pass along!

I've been busy uploading pictures to our flickr account and found these wintertime scenes I thought you'd enjoy.