WINNER!!! Giveaway: “Apothecary, The Experiment”

The winner of the “Apothecary, The Experiment” giveaway is:

Carmen Anthony, who said:
“This is a great organic recipe. I have started to turn my life around by paying attention to ingredients in what I buy and have started making all my own cleaning supplies and soap. I have started buying a few essential oils as I can afford. This Milk Cow Kitchen recipe is so easy and I think I could use it on horses and maybe even on myself since flies like me as well. Thank you for the wonderful site and information.”

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And the original post for the GIVEAWAY was (thank you to the 47 women who left such wonderful feedback about my Milk Cow Kitchen book):

In the Aug/Sept issue of MaryJanesFarm, “The Experiment” (on newsstands July 14), we led you here to my daily journal for a chance to win a free sampling of products from our favorite apothecary, Mountain Rose Herbs. While I enjoy many of Mountain Rose Herbs’ bath, body, and kitchen products myself, I’m also glad to report that they’re one of my cows’ favorite suppliers, too. “What do herbs have to do with cows?” you may ask. Well, I make a non-toxic homemade fly spray for my herd using MRH essential oils.

I’m happy to share the recipe from my Milk Cow Kitchen book with you here:

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For biting flies, I use a non-toxic homemade fly spray that I dispense from a backpack sprayer every day for the four to eight weeks (in my locale) that biting flies are the worst. It takes me about 15 minutes to spray 12 head of cattle. I do it either while they’re eating or I spray my cows one by one when I bring them in to prep them for milking.

1 gal water
2 cups organic distilled white vinegar
2 T “green” dish soap
1 T essential oil (citronella, eucalyptus, tea tree, and lavender all work well)

For a few days’ supply, I fill my sprayer with water to the 1-gallon mark. To that, I add 2 cups organic distilled white vinegar, 2 T “green” dish soap (necessary surfactant), and 1 T citronella essential oil. I put the sprayer on, do a happy dance to shake things up, and then I spray my bovine friends—first along their backs and their behinds, then down their legs and under their bellies. When I need a change from the smell of the citronella oil, I switch to tea tree or eucalyptus oil, or my favorite: lavender. Essential oils are available organically grown from MountainRoseHerbs.com. If you have only one cow, you can use a small, hand-held sprayer that has a built-in mechanism for putting the liquid under pressure. Using the kind of sprayer you use to wash windows is time-consuming. And hard on your hands.

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For a chance to win a 4-oz jar of MRH organic citronella essential oil AND a 4-oz jar of MRH organic eucalyptus essential oil, just tell me what you liked best about Milk Cow Kitchen in the comments below. (If you haven’t picked up a copy of Milk Cow Kitchen yet, order your autographed copy here—and get a FREE “Have a Cow” bumper sticker.) We’ll toss your name in a hat and draw one lucky winner in mid-September, when the Aug/Sept issue expires on newsstands. Stay tuned for more magazine-related giveaways!

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