turning chaos.....

into order. :) slowly....

Our greenhouse is going to a new home! We haven't used it in years, and have to move it to put in Donna's new septic system, so, we just took this opportunity to give it to someone who will use it. It's going to a great new home in southern Iowa. :)


This is what happens when you don't cut back your mints! This is mountain mint - it's up past my waist, but you can see when I start cutting it - it's all stem! I'm systematically cutting it all back - to the ground - and using it in smuge, distillation, and drying it. The plants will be smaller, bushier, healthier and much more prolific next year. I'm also giving away bags and bags of it, so if anyone in the central Iowa area needs mint....just stop by the farm.

Here's a rare shot - both Donna and her doggie Monk (aptly named after the nerotic detective on the tv show) are camera shy - to get a picture of the 2 of them together is a real treat!

You can see some cupboards in the back ground....we are installing new cupboards, cabinets and countertops in the classroom and doing ALOT of cleaning and decluttering. It's going to be transformed! I can't wait!

Sorry for the lack of blogging, folks. It's been a bit crazy around here!

We have been busy preparing the farm for a new septic system, and next week will do some work on my mother's house. She is having some renovations done to make the house more comfortable for my 90 year old grandfather. Meanwhile....Grandpa is actually in a nursing home. He had a mild stroke a few weeks ago, and is needing more care than we can currently provide for him at home. He is, however, recovering pretty well, and we think chances are quite good that he will be able to come home when he regains some strength and balance. Meanwhile we visit him at the nursing home daily, where he keeps tabs on the farm ("And how are the plums coming along? And my tomato plants?") through us.

We had an amazing Sample Sunday last weekend (we're still recovering!) and are already planning our next one - can you believe that on Sunday, September 20th, Prairieland Herbs will celebrate it's 11th birthday?? We have been so incredibly blessed to have had these wonderful years with all of you...and look forward to many more.

So now we are harvesting, distilling, and planning our fall classes and our 11th birthday party events. We have fun things planned for our local folks for next Sample Sunday, but also will be showing our appreciation to our customers nationally and internationally! Stay tuned!!!!

Um...I forgot Freebie Friday last week. TOTALLY forgot it. SO SORRY! I will post something extra good this friday. :)



AND NOW! A reminder about the upcoming Sample Sunday - this weekend! Sunday, August 16th. It's gonna be GREAT! Amazing handmade jams and jellies. Hula hooping. Awesome lunch available. Mini horses, dogs, cats, goats, and cows! FREE Reiki, chair massages and henna tattoos!

Gorgeous sterling silver jewelry for sale. Hay maze and pony rides! Food samples GALORE. Awesome handspun yarns and beautiful alpaca roving and clothing items.

In short....it's the place to be this Sunday. 12-5, rain or shine, be there or be square.

More info and printable map here: Central Iowa Small Farms Website

We will be at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market tomorrow - come see us! Our market location for this Saturday is on Court Ave, near 4th St., on the North side of Court. (Across the street from where we have been vending this year). See you there!

BODY POWDERS ARE ON SALE! 30% off - now until August 15th. Talc-free body powders are great for keeping you dry in the summer time!

Check out this great tutorial on crystallizing borage flowers. *YUM!* Thanks for sharing, Sabbath!

Happy Freebie Friday!!

Jennifer Vander Molen is the winner of our Luxury Soap of the Month! :) Yay Jennifer!

This week's Freebie - one of our Mini Facial Care Samplers. These are AWESOME for traveling, or just a great way to try out 3 of our most popular facial care products: our Luxury Soaps, Eye and Face Creams, and our Facial Serum.


These kits are customized for 3 different skin types: Mature/Dry, Normal, and Problem/Oily. Winner gets to choose the best type for their skin.

If you'd like to enter yourself to win one of these kits, simply 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.

You gotta love a product rave blost post entitled "I'm Going To Smell Like Awesome". :)

Thanks, Kasey, (Last week's Freebie Friday Winner) for the excellent review, and great blog post. You are giving us a big big happy here at Prairieland Herbs today! :)

Here's a great blog post about a small essential oil distiller in Canada. I have a heck of a time explaining to people why we don't distill our own essential oils....they see we have an herb farm, and a still...so why aren't we making essential oils? The question is one of scale. We have a TINY herb farm (less than 2 acres, most of which is occupied with house/barn/outbuildings/store/parkinglot/miniature horses), and a tiny still. You need many many pounds of herbal matter to make OUNCES of essential oils! This article and pictures give a small taste of the size of still needed to make quantites of essential oil.

Happy Freebie Friday!

Congrats to last week's winner - Kasey aka Captain Awesome! Kasey, email us at shop at prairielandherbs dot com with your address and we'll send out your aromatherapy bath salt kit!

This week's Freebie - a bar of our July Luxury Soap of the Month! That's right - it's baaack! We've gotten our act together and are once again posting a new, luxurious soap once a month. These are limited edition specialty bars - so get them while they're here, because when they're gone, they're GONE!

This month's selection is scented with a luscious blend of herbal and citrus essential oils - basil, rosemary, spearmint, lime, tangerine. YUM. Like a visit to your favorite spa!

If you'd like to enter yourself to win one of these bars, simply 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.

Today we're working on an order for our buds at Soul-Flower.com. Did you know that they carry 4 custom-made Prairieland Herbs products that are ONLY sold at Soul-flower.com? That is how much we love this super-cool business! If you love patchouli, go here to check out their custom scents: Patchouli Flower solid perfume and body balm, and Patchouli Soul solid perfume and body balm. Too cool!!

We still have kitties that need homes! Yesterday they all got spayed/neutered, microchipped, vaccinated and treated with Revolution. Today, they're recouperating. :( If you are interested in adopting a kitten...let us know! (thanks for the photo John!)

Happy Freebie Friday everyone!

We will be at the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market tomorrow, on Court Avenue in front of Dos Rios. Stop by and see us!

Last week's winner of a Milk Bath is Melanie from the UK! Melanie, drop us an email - shop at prairielandherbs dot com - with your mailing address and what scent of milk bath you'd like!

This week's Friday Freebie is our Aromatherapy Bath Salt Kit! 4 refillable/resealable tubes of bath salts packaged together in a mesh bag make a fun aromatherapy bath salt kit. You receive 1 tube each of Peppermint, Rosemary, Tangerine and Lavender bath salts. These are AWESOME as a gift, or a delightful way to pamper yourself! If you'd like to enter yourself to win one of these kits, simply 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.

Just a quick post to update everyone. Sorry we've been so quiet lately. Summer is always a challenge in any year - our workload more than doubles, due to gardening, distilling, harvesting, and farmer's markets. We do all those thing in ADDITION to making, packaging and shipping our products, running the blog/website, and just general business maintenance "stuff" (paperwork, paying bills, cleaning, the boring stuff!). I'll try to be better about keeping the blog interesting with photos, recipes, etc!

This summer is even a bit more different. Our business is located on my mom's property, along with her house. She has to have a new septic system go in....which HAS to be located right where the majority of our herbs were grown. That's fine, we dealt with it, moved the plants we needed, and adjusted our other growing areas. THEN, the fellow who was going to put in the septic system sorta went MIA. So now the area where the septic system will go is suddenly a field of 12 ft. weeds. Niiiiiiice. *sigh* So we've given up any great ideas of having a "pretty" farm this year. :)

Another challenge for our summer involves my grandpa's health. My grandpa lives on the farm with my mom. He turned 90 just a few weeks ago! Overall, he's been in great health, and is an utter delight to have around. However, the last few weeks he's been struggling with some health problems; doctors visits and extra health care needs have kept my mom very busy with him, and introduced new challenges to her life.

We are able to enjoy and care for him in the last years of his life, BECAUSE we are a small family-run business able to work near home. For this, we owe you, our customers, a tremendously huge THANK YOU. Thank you for allowing us this job and lifestyle, full of both challenges and flexibility! Thank YOU for allowing us this job and lifestyle that allows us to care for the oldest and youngest (my sister's young children are here often) members of our family as needed. I wish everyone in the world had such options.

So if we're occasionally quiet on the blog, or your order ships a day or two later than we had anticipated, please, know that we are doing our best. We appreciate each and every one of you more than you know, and truly do our best to juggle work and family to the best of our abilities.

Happy Freebie Friday! Last week's winner of a freshly distilled peppermint hydrosol is Laura@lifedreamed. Laura, drop us an email at shop at prairielandherbs dot com with your mailing address, and we'll ship it right out!


This week's Freebie is a Milk Bath of your choice...cuz I just made a whole bunch of them to deliver to East Village Day Spa! It's a wonderfully soothing, relaxing moisturizing soak. Perfect for summertime sunburns! To enter fora chance to win this milk bath, simply leave a post here on today's entry.

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 FIVE gorgeous kittens that need homes. All are grey and black tabbies...some girls, some boys. All raised indoors, litterbox trained, socialized to other pets, and will be spayed/neutered and ready to go to their new homes in late July. Let us know if you're interested in these wonderful wonderful kitties!!

Happy Freebie Friday! Last week's winner is Karissa! Karissa, please email us at shop at prairielandherbs dot com and let us know which scent of Aluminum-free Deodorant you'd like!



This week's Freebie is a 2 oz. bottle of our Peppermint Hydrosol - JUST DISTILLED YESTERDAY! This a delightful and multi-purpose hydrosol. Add a wee bit to your favorite herbal tea (hot or iced), bottled water, lemonade, or mint julep for a delightful minty "zing"! Use as a facial toner for oily skin. Keep it in the fridge, and use it as an after-workout (or gardening, etc) "cool down" mist. Spray it on stinky shoes, gym bags, or yoga mats. Keep it on hand for hot flash relief. The uses are endless!


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 us for a 3-Farm Tour and “Fun in the Sun”

Sample Sunday July 12th • Noon-5 p.m. (rain or shine) • Admission FREE!

PICKET FENCE CREAMERY


FRESH LETTUCE AND CARROTS! (GROWN IN WOODWARD - NO CHEMICALS)
FRESH IOWA RHUBARB CRISPS! FRESH HERB RANCH DRESSING!
FRESH PEA, MACARONI, SPRING AND RED POTATO SALADS!


Local Food Samples: Root Beer Float Ice Cream,
Buffalo Summer Sausage
Neva’s Cheese Ball
Fresh Made Natural and Honey Roasted Peanut Butter
Fresh Cheese Curds
Spring Pasta Salad
Barbecue Sauce
Creamed Honey
Elk Sticks
Iowa Wines, and More!

Guest Vendors: Penoach Winery, Adel
Russ and Franks BBQ, Des Moines and
Sun Rise Farms, Woodward.

Music provided by HB Productions of Altoona.
Lunch is Served! Picket Fence Grilled Burgers -$3, Hotdog -$1, Kettle
Cooked Chips -$0.50, Chocolate Milk -$1, Ice Cream -$1, Root Beer Floats -$2!

Kids! Join the fun in the hay with a Hay Maze and find your lost treasure in our treasure
hunt! Also enjoy the company of our bottle calves, FREE kittens, and Jack!

Super Deals: Fresh Rhubarb Crisp and Quart of Ice Cream, $10; Our own 90%
Lean Ground Beef, $3.49 with 10 lb. purchase; Any Steak for $9.99/lb.; Buy a Local
Salsa and get a bag of Fresh Tortilla Chips for $1. More In-Store Specials!
“2’fers Deals”: 2 bags Cheese Curds for $6; 2 jars Local Cherry Jam for $9; 2
bottles Select Iowa Wines, $20. Featured Foods: Sweet Breads, Fresh Local Black
Walnuts, Fruit Crisps, 9” Deep Dish Lard Crust Pies, Pella Dutch Letters and Breads,
Kalona Noodles, Wines from 10 Iowa Wineries, and Much More!


PRAIRIELAND HERBS

Guest Vendors:
Massage and Ear Candling provided by Morning Rain Massage
Reiki by Lynn Parkey
Henna Tattoos by Atomic Heart Creations ($15 charge for ear candling, everything else is free!)
Gourmet Handmade Jams by Sally Kilkenny
Hand-turned Pens by Rick and Ryan Nail

Free soap and bath salt samples from Prairieland Herbs! Check our our natural bug
repellants - "buzz off" wand and "bug off" soap.

New products: 100% essential oil incense, Limited Edition "Herbal Citrus" luxury soap of the month.


NORTHERN PRAIRIE CHEVRE


• Back by popular demand – Onion Creek Cloggers and Band from 1:30 – 4:00
• Family pictures or your child’s picture taken with our goats by Karla from KG Photography.
Variety of photo packages available or choose ala cart! VERY affordable prices!!!!!!
• Byron from the Leather Factory will have ongoing mini workshops for you to make and
take home a leather bracelet!
• Enjoy a soothing chair massage with Shannon from Hands On Therapeutic Massage
• NEW – Bloom and Bark dog treats. Our dogs love them!!!
• Tassel Ridge Winery and Sugar Clay Winery will sample several of their wines
• Buffalo Wing Sauce, Denison Mustards, Café Diem coffees, Willow Ridge goat milk products & more
• Milton from Sheeder Farms will have the grill fired up!
• E18 landscaping boulders in various sizes and prices while they last!
• Mary, certified Hoopnautica instructor will have classes on the hour plus hoops to purchase
• Sample Randol Honey creamed honey and soaps
• Kids– free freeze pops. Be sure to visit both barns to say hello and get lovings!
• Come in to Miss Tillie’s for samples of our cheese and MUCH MORE!

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.


Donna Jean's Flowers

Antiques & Collectibles .
Large Selection of Willow Tree Angels
.
Beautiful Garden Art .
Blue & White Pottery, Green & Blooming Plants

Featuring local artists......
. Native American Lakota art work by Michael “White Feather”
. Hand Crafted Silver “Moon Dance” Jewelry by Kelly Moore.
. Hand Blown glass by Art Ciccott, and others.
More than just a full Service Florist

215 South Main
Downtown...Woodward


Visit Centraliowasmallfarms.com for more info and a printable map!

Another product review and blog giveaway! If you'd like to read a review of our Bath Teas, Shampoo Bars, and Healing Wand, AND a chance to win all of those items, visit Prissy Green!