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Greetings!
Wow,
what a great spring! We began with a deluge of rain, but have been totally
spoiled with day after day of 75 degree sunshine. That's great, because
we have tons of work to do! We've been tilling, weeding, and planting
our buns off, and it's starting to show. And now the harvest begins!
We're
harvesting beautiful roses, succulent plantain leaves, oodles of lemon
balm, and big fat swatches of comfrey leaves. We're drying and infusing
up a storm! We look forward to the summer season of planting, harvesting,
farmer's markets, and of course feasting on the lovely herbs. We hope
the same is in store for you. :)
| Plantain
- one of our favorite weeds |
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Plantain is just flat-out amazing. This humble weed (trust us, you've
got it growing in your backyard, even if you hadn't realized it
until now) has a long historical use as both food and medicine,
and is drastically overlooked in our modern-day society. It's medicinal
uses are just barely beginning to be studied and fully understood.
We
harvest chemical-free plantain from our land, and a nearby (unused)
field. We use it as an ingredient in our "standard" herbally infused
oil, which generally includes plantain, comfrey, and St. John's
Wort. The leaves - fresh, dried, tinctured, or infused - are an
amazing wound healer and have incredible benefits. Read our article
to learn why we adore this wonderful weed.
Weeds
can be your friends... »
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| New
Soaps |
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Karla has created a new shampoo bar for the mint fanatic. Mint Tingle
has a blend of peppermint and spearmint essential oils, AND a dose
of menthol crystals, to make this the most mint-a-licious soap EVER.
Oh yes, she also adds nettle infusion because it is just so wonderful
for your hair. This is an excellent bar for those who have are,
shall we say, getting a little thin on top? (We actually toyed with
the idea of calling this shampoo bar Baldy's Friend, but thought
that might be rather un-PC. But who says balding is bad, necessarily?
Anyway, the point is, this is a very stimulating shampoo!) Maggie
(who loves minty things) uses this as a lovely, tingly, all-over
body wash, so if you love minty things, definately give this one
a try.
And
Nancy, not to be outdone, has given us a new luxury soap - Green
Tea and Aloe. This bar is as beautiful as all her others, and
has amazing creamy lather - due to the fresh aloe and real cream,
YUM. Huge creamy lather, healing aloe, and an amazing green tea
scent. What more could you want? By the way, Maggie used this
last week after she 1) fought valiantly with a rosebush and lost,
and 2) did so in a tank top under the blazing sun without sunscreen
(oops) and can report firsthand that this soap was very lovely
and soothing to use afterwards. And did we mention it smells good
too?!
We
love handmade soaps, don't you? »
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| Visit
us at the Ankeny Farmer's Market |
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Some friend of ours have convinced us to try the Ankeny Farmer's
Market this weekend - Saturday, June 14th. The market runs from
9 until 1 and is located SW Cherry & SW Maple in Ankeny. Follow
the link below for directions. We'll be there (weather allowing)
with a selection of our herbal products as well as some fresh herbs
and flowers. If you plan to be there, and want to purchase something
in specific, please email or call us to make sure we bring it for
you! We look forward to seeing you there.
Fresh
herbs, flowers, veggies and more - what's not to love? »
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| Violet
Jelly Recipe |
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A friend sent us this recipe (thanks April!) and it turns out it's
almost the exact same one we have used for years to make herbal
jellies! We know it works well with roses (makes a beautiful pink
jelly, but PLEASE do not use florists roses, only unsprayed garden
roses), lavender, lemon balm, mint, and cinnamon basil - and we
bet you can come up with even better variations.
Herbal
jellies are delicious to eat on biscuits or toast, but are also
divine melted and poured over pound cake, or wonderful on crackers
or a nut or tea bread with cream cheese. Inventive cooks will
also find uses for them as a meat or vegetable glaze too! Have
fun and experiment - this recipe is a wonderful "base" recipe
that you can add and change as you wish.
Violet
Jelly Recipe »
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| Sunburn
Sale! :) |
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On sale this month are 2 of our favorite bath products that help
relieve sunburn. Our Soothing Bath Herbs have a gentle mixture of
certified organic oats, chamomile, calendula and roses to make a
lovely healing tea for your skin. The herbs and oats are conveniently
packaged in a muslin bag, so all you have to do is toss the whole
thing in the tub, and hop in. We wring out the bag thorougly after
use, and set it to dry on a soap rack, and can use it a couple of
times. Don't need to be soothed? Try the Rosemary & Mint version
for some pep, or our Relaxing Bath Herbs (loaded with lemon balm
and lavender).
Our
fizzing bath salts are more than just fun for your tub. They are
also loaded with refreshing, deodorizing, and sunburn-soothing
baking soda, as well as natural vegetable oils to soften your
skin. All varieties of the fizzing bath salts are completely all-natural,
scented only with essential oils, and are enhanced with some pretty
botanicals (read: herb and flower bits) to keep you company in
the tub. :)
Both
of these products are on sale until June 31, so stock up now!
(As
a side note, our herbal healing salve is not on sale, but it IS
almost unbeatable as a sunburn soother. The St. John's Wort infusion
and lavender essential oil help heal burns while the aloe, vitamin
E, comfrey and calendula infusions help regenerate skin tissues.
Just thought you'd like to know.)
Skin
Soothers on Sale....
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