Herbhome Farm & Hostel

Was so cool! i arrived on a stormy rainy night (with tornado warnings!) traveling from NYC to Arizona! Jeannie and her family are all so amazing and cool! I highly recommend staying there! They are still in the middle of rebuilding the hostel house, so i stayed in one of their tents. Was exciting, especially with tornado winds blowing me around! The next morning, Jeannie made me a spectacular breakfast and we chatted for hours about life and everything. Great experience!

This was the best hostel experience I've ever had. Although Herbhome had temporarily closed down while I was in the area due to a fire, which destroyed their home, they insisted that since I sounded too tired and weary — over the phone — that I should stay there for the night instead of moving on. When I couldn't find their VERY remote Ozark address after, I called the hostel and they drove a few miles away and guided me back to their place just in time for a very unique home-cooked potluck dinner. I was very excited to arrive at the home, as it was immediately noticeable that I would be having a different sort of hostelling experience, Ozark style. The owners of Herbhome will shatter any preconceived stereotype you may have of the rural south. They are both very well educated and intelligent people, with a wealth of life experience to share. They are also very accommodating and willing to do whatever they can to enhance your stay. The morning after I visited, they took me on a tour of the area, down dirt roads most of us would barely recognize as trails It was refreshing to see a part of this once great country so relatively undiscovered and to do so while experiencing a unique flavor of southern hospitality.

This place is great! They have an herb garden that is about an acre with all sorts of herbs that Jeannie will tell you about and then they really KNOW the Buffalo river and the hiking spots all around. It's really homey — Jeannie made sure I settled in, then fed me this great home-cooked meal. I stayed 10 days. They work hard and play hard. Their grandkids are there in the afternoon and evening. Some days it was really quiet, other days people from all over were dropping in — one or two other campers came in. It seems to be neighborhood center. They had a pot luck dinner Sunday night — man, you can't beat the food. They had a WWOOF-er in from Bolivia and a friend there from Belize — the talk was about anything and everything. It was a real surprise to find this international flavor in the middle of the Ozarks. The farm is alive with animals. The only down is the dogs chasing the coyotes away. There was even a bear in the back pasture! These great huge guard dogs ran him off. They are like gentle giants. I really recommend this place. When they are not busy with farm stuff, they will take you around all over the place. If you want to get a feel for what this part of America is like, stay at Herbhome! It makes a good base camp. I helped around the farm and then helped Jeannie haul manure twice. It kind of opened my eyes about how my food gets to me! Anyway, you can tell I'm going back whenever I can.

Really primitive — Jeannie warned us. Very nice, though. They share a lot about what they are doing — we really learned a lot of neat things and got to see a lot of scenic places with them. They weren't kidding about the big dogs, though. Scooby Doo is huge! A real pussy cat, though. The food was country, but yummy.

Very primitive, but extra friendly folks. Lots of fun, good food and they shared a lot of information about the area! Worth the roughing it!