Week 5 of the Herbal Blog Giveaway

This is Week 5 of the Herbal Blog Contest. 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? Patti's lip balms use natural oils, food-grade lip-safe flavorings and essential oils may be used to add flavor to the lip balms. No sweetener is added. 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!!! 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. Patti is unable to ship out of country at this time.

Patti’s Potions
PrairieLand Herbs
Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Natures Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal
Garden Chick
SunRose Aromatics

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!

Winners of the Tea Sampler Giveaway

I'm still waiting to hear back from one of the blog owners of the giveaway, & need a bit more info from several of the winners, but here are the winners so far & I'll add the last one as soon as I get it. If you're listed as a winner & I don't have your name & mailing address, please contact me at labyrinthherbs@aol.com with that info! And congratulations!

Torchsong Studios winner is Regina, drflowersales@gmail
Natures Gift winner is Nece, kariteimo@gmail
Essential Herbal winner is Tumbleweed Trails, visionquest220@msn
Patti's Potions winner is Carolyn, carogonza1@yahoo
Aquarian Baths winner is cowgirltazz@yahoo
Sunrose Aromatics winner is Justine Crane, sapobubbles@yahoo
Prairieland Herbs winner is ebersolecattleco@yahoo
Rosemary House winner is fillynn@juno
Garden Chick's winner is ikkinlala@yahoo.com

And the winner from my blog, Herbs from the Labyrinth, is peder3@wi.rr.com

We're Flipping the Switch for Climate Change!

Herbs From the Labyrinth has signed up for Earth Hour in 2009. This Saturday, March 28, from 8:30 to 9:30pm, we will turn out non-essential lighting and join millions across the globe in sending a strong message to our national and world leaders that we must take action now on global climate change. And what could be more romantic than a fire in the fireplace, a glass of wine and a darkened house?

Join us. Find out how you can turn out and take action on climate change by visiting the EarthHour web site at www.EarthHourUS.org.

Week 4 of the Herb Blog Giveaway

For the week between Friday, March 20 and Thursday, March 26, the swap stops here!

You can enter simply by entering a comment in response to this blog entry and take a chance at winning a sampler of my hand-blended herbal teas, 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.















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.

Patti’s Potions
PrairieLand Herbs
Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Natures Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal
Garden Chick
SunRose Aromatics

Let's Make Dream Pillows!

Wednesday, March 25 from 12:05pm til 12:50
Bring your lunch to this noontime class!

A dream pillow is a small pouch filled with herbs, which have been selected to stimulate dreaming. It is a simple magical spell, or gentle prayer, for your desires in regard to your sleep and dreams.

Tina Sams, editor of the Essential Herbal magazine, and I will talk about the qualities of some herbs used in dream pillows, so that you can choose the herbs that will give you the sort of dream experience you are looking for, whether it is more restful, more vivid, psychic, even escape from nightmares. Each participant will leave with a dream pillow that they've made themselves.

Cost for the class is $16, & includes materials.
Call Radiance, 290-1517, or stop by to register, 9 W Grant St, Lancaster, PA 17603.

Week 3, Herbal Blog Contest

Sorry I'm a little late getting this post up!

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
PrairieLand Herbs
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!

Let's Make Lip Balm!

Bring your lunch & learn to make lip balms in this noontime class! We’ll discuss oils, waxes and how to use essential oils for flavoring. We’ll share secrets of the trade, & you’ll go home with a pot of lip balm that we’ve made in class.

Sarah Campbell, herbalist & owner of Herbs from the Labyrinth and Tina Sams, editor of The Essential Herbal Magazine, will facilitate this fun class, which will be held on Wednesday, March 18, from 12:05 until 12:50.

Class will be held at Radiance, 9 W Grant St (across from Central Market). Stop in, or call 290-1517 to register. $15 for the class includes all materials.

Welcome to week 2 of our Herb Blog Group Contest!

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
Patti’s Potions
PrairieLand Herbs
Aquarian Bath
The Rosemary House
Natures Gift
Torchsong Studio
The Essential Herbal

OMG! Poke Salad at a Gourmet Restaurant!

Seriously! We went out for dinner this weekend and were served Poke Salad as a complimentary appetizer! It was exquisitely delicious, and you can imagine the thrill I felt to be served wild food. John J Jeffries is the restaurant at the Lancaster Arts Hotel, and they do specialize in local, organic foods, but still...Poke?

The salad, prepared by pastry chef Brian "Booty Shaker" Burton, consisted of finely chopped Poke, pickled carrots & onion, olive oil, salt & pepper, Rosemary & Thyme. Simple and simply divine.

Poke has been eaten as a very early Spring tonic green for ages. The theory is that it helps to get things moving as we leave Winter weight behind. Once it gets larger it's no longer edible. The photo above is so you'll know which plant I'm talking about, but don't eat it when it looks like that. You only eat the tiny new shoots in the Spring, like these:

Poke root has long been cautiously used by traditional healers to dissolve breast tumors. Jethro Kloss recommended making a poultice of raw grated root, but that seems a bit extreme to me. It would probably eat away at the skin first. Yipes. Susun Weed talks about using olive oil infused with Poke root for breast lumps in her book, Breast Cancer? Breast Health! When I studied with Matthew Wood, he taught us that a drop or 2 of Poke tincture was the remedy for "lazy teenagers of any age".