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.

Everybody now, sing together (Loudly and off-key please - it's more fun that way)...

"Happy Birthday Dear Donna, Happy Birthday To Yoooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu"


That's right! It's Donna's 61st birthday, and to celebrate, she's requested that we offer 2 of her favorite products at a drastic discount!


Our 1 oz. facial serums are now $10 OFF - now only $20! These serums are WONDERFUL. Available in 3 types - for normal, oily/problem, or mature/dry skin formulations. We spent several months researching and testing various combinations of oils and essential oils, and LOVE the results. Facial serums are a super-concentrated moisturizer - you only need a few drops per application. The blends of oils/essential oils moisturize and tone your skin, yet are not at all heavy or greasy. You can apply makeup several minutes after putting on the serum. Customers have also told us they love these to use as hair serums, or to remove makeup at night.

Whipped shea butters are $5 off - now only $10!!!

Our whipped shea butters are simply divine. 100% natural (scented only with essential oils), these contain 70% Fair Trade shea butter. They're wonderfully moisturizing and can be used as an all-over body moisturizer, BUT, our customers love these as facial moisturizers too. The "Wise Woman" scent in particular has quite a cult following! The Simply Shea (uscented) version is a huge favorite of the fellows in our lives.

Sale prices good through March 8th....enjoy!!

Huzzah! My camera battery arrived. Now I can show you the pics I took a week or so ago. Here's a bit of late-winter sunshine.

Here's Contessa, one of our mini-horses, getting nosy :)

Here's Princess and her onery baby Delilah.

And Mo, posing beautifully!!

It recently came to my attention that our friends Michelle and Pat at Possum Creek Herb Farm have compiled a FREE HERBAL WEDDING PLANNER. Isn't that a wonderful idea? It is available free of charge to anyone who emails them, requesting it.

They also have a wonderful ebooklet of recipes available for purchase, which we highly recommend!

Pat and Michelle do a fablous job growing MANY kinds of herb plants and are experts at shipping them safely. If you need herb plants, we'd highly recommend checking out Possum Creek. (we are in no way getting any kickbacks or anything from this - just recommending a fellow herb biz. we know and trust!)

Happy Friday everyone! :)

Last week's winner is CowgirlTazz!! Please email us with your address,and which 2 Biscuit Bars you'd like, and we will ship them right out!

This weeks' Friday Freebie is brought to you by 1) my dry winter skin, and 2) my love of long hot soaks in the tub. In the winter, I HAVE to use these salts - enriched with rich, moisturizing ingredients such as milk powder, shea butter, herbally infused olive oil, and cocoa butter - in order to enjoy my long hot soaks (complete with paperback book and a glass of wine - if you're gonna do it, you might as well do it in style) without being an itchy dry mess afterwards.

SO! We're giving away a bag of our botanical bath salts to two lucky winners! (Your choice - they come in 3 varieties).

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

AND! A twist this week. I'd like help picking next weeks "Freebie" item. In your comment, please write an item or items you'd like to see in next week's FREEBIE!

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.

One last thing. This weekend we'll be offering a couple of REALLY GREAT SALES ($5 and $10 off certain products!) in honor of Donna's upcoming birthday. If you're not on our mailing list....you really should be :) New members to our enewsletter get 10% off their first order too!

FINALLY! Some farm pics!!

Our good digital camera is still broken, and my old junky one needs a new battery. John took these with good old fashioned FILM (remember that stuff?) and put them on cd for us.


An artistic view of our drying shed.


This is Delafino, the smallest and youngest of our minature horses. Doesn't he look like a dirty little street urchin? I *promise* he is well cared for. He just really enjoyed playing in the mud on this particular day.


Just a random farm gate, but it has charm, doesn't it?

Over the last 10+ years, we have amassed many, MANY photos of the farm, herbs, products, and farm critters. I'm slowly putting them on our new Flickr account, for everyone to enjoy! So please, "friend" us on Flickr and check back often - I plan to add 5-10 pics every day or so.....there will be tons and tons of them!

We won our first blog award! How VERY exciting! :) Our delightful and talented friend Jill from Blue Gate Farms gave us this great award. Thanks Jill!

So, we are supposed to list 5 addictions....here goes!

1) First one is easy. Any and all dairy products from our fantastic neighbors at Picket Fence Creamery. With 25 varieties of homemade ice cream, handmade Jersey Milk butter, the world's best chocolate milk, and a handmade cheeseball that is simply out of this world - well frankly, it's amazing we aren't each 300 lbs!!!!

2) Secondly, we're spoiled by some amazing goat cheese - Chevre from Reichert's Dairy Aire, and the amazing aged cheese (and the divine chocolate sauce) from Northern Prairie Chevre.

3) GOUDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have NOT tasted gouda cheese until you have tasted this divine stuff from Frisian Farms. Iam SOOOOO delighted that Picket Fence Creamery carries it now - I was buying it every chance I got at the Downtown Farmer's Market, but....having it available next door is even better!

4) Wine from Prairie Moon Winery in Ames. Every variety is delicious, but in particular I recommend the Marechel Foch Reserve. I really, really want to try the Winter Moon Ice Wine. Maybe someday!

5) COFFEE!!! Donna likes it light, Maggie likes it thick and dark, and we both enjoy it with generous dollops of pure Picket Fence Jersey Cream (no wussy half and half or - *shudder* MILK!) Home roasted fair trade organic is the best!

Okay! Let's see - and to pass the award along, I nominate Tina at The Essential Herbal, for her inspiring writing, Susan at Farm at Coventry for her astounding photos, and Sarah at Wallypop for her fantastic natural goods for babies, as well as her excellent blog posts about CIPSA.