Here's a brief photo journal of our last month's Sample Sunday...it was LOADS of fun! If this looks like fun to you, come visit us on July 12th! Visit centraliowasmallfarms.com for details!

Happy Freebie Friday! (yeah, it's actually Saturday...I'm not entirely sure where Friday went and I forgot to do this posting. Please forgive me!).

Last week's winner of our African Black Gel Soap is Nadine! Nadine, please email us at shop at prairielandherbs dot com and let us know your mailing address!

This week's Freebie....an Aluminum-free natural deodorant! We have three scents available - winner may choose his or her favorite. Please note that these are NOT anti-persperants, and are quite different from "drugstore" deodorants. They will not stop you from sweating, they'll just help you smell better while you do it. :) Why aluminum-free deodorants are good If you'd like to win a free deodorant, simply leave a comment on this 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.

I haven't actually tried this recipe - so take this advice with a grain of salt - but it sure looks like a pretty darn good recipe for a natural deodorant! (Instrustables.com is SO cool! and thanks Jill for the link!)

We have kittens for adoption! One was found at my sister's work - we raised her from a 3 week old, so she is a bottle-baby. The other 4 were found in a Mustang car (currently non-running)on the farm. Their feral momma thought that was a great place to raise a family, apparently. So now Shelby, Bullitt (aka. Steve McQueen), Elanor, Dash and Sally are looking for homes! They are about 8 weeks old, living indoors, socialized to other cats and dogs, and litterbox trained. If you're interested in adopting one (or more) just let us know!

Happy Freebie Friday! Last weeks' winners are as follows:
2 oz. Green Thumb Salve - dazedpuckbunny
1/2 oz. Green Thumb Salve - 1 each to DoulaSara and Carolinamomma! Please, everyone, email us at shop at prairielandherbs dot com with your mailing addresses and we will get these sent right out!


This week we are offering our Black Gel Soap! We purchased some true, handmade African Black Soap from our favorite Fair Trade shea butter supplier (Agbanga Karite) and then added our own hydrosols to create a lovely, thick all-natural gel soap that is delighful as a face, hand, or body cleanser. This cleanser has thick, rich lather and is unscented - smells pleasantly of, well, soap! It's mild and very gentle. If you'd like it scented, feel free to add a few drops of your favorite essential oil. If you'd like to win a bottle of our Black Gel Soap, simply 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.

Well! Maggie's computer is on the fritz....and I can't change the website until it's fixed, so, you folks get to enjoy the $5 shipping sale until it's fixed!!! haha!!! happy shopping! :)

A few pics from around the farm, last Friday afternoon.

St. John's wort is starting to bloom!

Here you can see St. John's wort (closest), prairie sage (tall and grey) and mountain mint (behind the prairie sage).

Happy Freebie Friday!!!

Last week's winner of our awesome Natural Laundry Gift Set is Melissa aka LbFool! Melissa, drop us an email at shop at prairielandherbs dot com and let us know what scent you'd like!

This week - a little gift for all the hardworking gardeners. We're offering 1 - 2 oz. jar and 2 - 1/2 oz jars of our "Green Thumb Gardener's Salve". Perfect for soothing garden-rough hands and feet, and healing any little nicks and scrapes (or massive scratches like we get when pruning the roses). Also? the scent of this stuff keeps the bugs away. You really can't go wrong.

If you'd like to win one of these, simply leave a comment on this 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.

We have an AMAZING Sample Sunday lined up this Sunday, June 14th!

Spa Sample Sunday at Prairieland Herbs!
Get ready to relax with:

• FREE Gauranga Reiki
• FREE yoga demonstrations from Firehouse Yoga
• FREE henna tattooing
• FREE ear candling
• Reflexology sessions
• Free bath salts, soap and shampoo bar samples

And the finest selection of handmade natural bath and body products available ANYWHERE!

Sally Kilkenny will have her usual selection of amazing gourmet jams for sale, and she'll also be selling miniature roses.

At Northern Prarie Chevre you can enjoy:

Brat lunch

FREE concert “Sweet Tater” Matt TeRonde 1:00 – 4:30
FREE hula-hooping lessons on the hour
Soothing chair massages available
Free samples from Snus Hill & Tassel Ridge Wineries
Loads of delicious local food samples!

Come in to Miss Tillie’s for samples of our cheese and MUCH MORE!

at Picket Fence Creamery:

Pony rides for the kids!

Free food samples galore: Orange-pineapple ice cream, Buffalo Summer Sausage, Neva's Cheeseballs, Fresh Cheese Curds, Chocolate Milk, Iowa Wines, Creamed Honey, Elk Sticks
and much more!

"2'fers Deals": 2 bags cheese curds for $6; 2 jars local cherry jam for $9; 2 bottles any Iowa wine for $20!!!

Fresh Iowa Strawberries, lettuce, and rhubarb crisp!

and at Donna Jean's Flowers:

Join us in our renovated 1800s Building, complete with restored tin ceilings and wood floors. Browse over 3000 sq. feet of Period & Shabby Chic furniture.

Antiques & Collectibles

Beautiful Garden Art

Large Selection of Willow Tree Angels

Blue & White Pottery, Green & Blooming Plants Featuring local artists......

Native American Lakota art work by Michael "White Feather"

Moon Dance Jewelry by Kelly Moore

Hand Blown glass by Art Ciccott, and others.

We will be handing out a Flower to the Ladies and Free popcorn for the Kids.

Visit Centraliowasmallfarms.com for a full listing of events and printable map!

We've FINALLY distilling again! Oh, how I miss our still during the wintertime. It really excites the alchemist in me to turn fresh water and herbs into gorgeous lush yummy hydrosols. So we'll be updating the website regularly as hydrosols come back in stock!

Comfrey Hydrosol is back in stock - it's wonderful for sunburn, as a facial toner for dry, irritated or mature skin,rashes or skin irritations of any sort, and we find it invaluable for pet care (wound care, ear cleaning etc).

ALSO! For the next 5 days, enjoy $5 flat rate shipping on all US and Canadian orders! (Orders over $100 ship for free, as always!) Flat Rate Shipping good through June 15th.

Happy Shopping!

Yay! We have our market location! We will be vending at the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market tomorrow on 4th and Court, in front of Dos Rios. See you there!!

Happy Freebie Friday!

Last week's winner of the 5 lip balm set is Abby G! Drop me an email, Abby, and we'll send your gift right out! :)I'm feeling rather generous today, so our Freebie Friday for this week is an entire Natural Laundry Gift Set (retail value $39.00). Set contains a full pound of laundry soap, a dryer sachet, an 8 oz. bottle of body and linens mist, and a 1/3 oz bottle of essential oil. If you haven't tried all-natural laundry products, this is a real treat! Your clothes smell and feel wonderful. :)

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.

Good luck!

Finally finished planting all my tomatoes and peppers in the straw bale garden. This pic is from last Saturday, I think. It rained on them off and on all weekend so I haven't had to water them (yay). So far, they are looking okay. The straw bales are starting to grown, well, straw! Looks just like green grass sprouting on them. I'll get pics of that soon, too. :)

Sharing 2 cool blog links with you today.

First, a great tutorial on making your own salves and balms, posted by the fabulous ladies at The Essential Herbal!

Second, a great tutorial on making dandelion syrup from Larskspur Funny Farm! Flower/herb syrups are just so magical and yummy.


Enjoy!!

Happy Freebie Friday! (yes, I know it's Tuesday - but the entire weekend was totally crazy - see post below - so we'll just pretend for a few minutes, okay?)

Last week's winner was YOGAGIRL! Please email shop at prairielandherbs dot com with your mailing address and we'll send your hands and heels scrubby soap right out! (or , if you're going to be at the farmer's market this Saturday we can give it to you there).

This week's giveaway - a 5 lip balm gift set! One of the first products we ever made, and still one of the best. Folks worldwide are addicted to these! We are proud to use organic soybean, sunflower and olive oils in these balms, as well as locally produced beeswax.

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.

Holy cow! You guys actually pay attention to our ramblings!!! we've been getting email after email about how we haven't blogged for days (and I missed Friday Freebie - so sorry! Will rectify that shortly...). Here's what happened. My grandpa lives on the farm here with my mother. He celebrated his 90th birthday this past weekend, and we had a big family party planned - folks coming in from Washington and Colorado and staying for days. BUT then my grandpa "decided" to celebrate his 90th with a hospital visit for blood clots! He's okay now, but it was a kerfuffle for a while...loads of family camped out here at the PLH farm visits to the hospital, etc. Because this is a family business with only two employees, when family emergencies happen it tends to make us cut out on our "normal" business activities.

(my mom and grandpa by our copper still)

Grandpa is home now, celebrated his 90th in style, and is looking forward to years and years of good health. We're getting back into our regular work routine. Thanks so much, everyone, for all the emails asking about us. We'll be better about keeping you posted in the future!

a few photos of the straw bale/lasagna garden experiment. Planted tomatoes in the lasagna part, and will be planting in the rest of the straw bales (peppers and tomatoes) early next week.

Just got word from the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market folks re: our stall location. We will be on Court Avenue, in front of Dos Rios - same as our last 2 markets. Look forward to seeing you there!

Happy Freebie Friday!

Last week's Buzz Off Wand winners are: Darb, Jennifer VM, and Michelle! ! Please email us at shop at prairielandherbs dot com with your full name and mailing address and we'll send those right out to you!

Today's giveaway - a bar of Hands and Heels Scrubby soap. Because it is the only think that keeps our hands and feet in any sort of reasonable condition during this gardening season. :) It's got loads of pumice and walnut hulls in it, to exofoliate and scrub. Feels so good!


If you'd like to win a hands and heels scrubby soap, leave a comment on this week's 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.

I have no idea where the phrase "working like a dog" comes from.

(top photo - Lexi, with her new spring haircut, and Jake is shown at the bottom photo).