Enter Our Farm Dog Photo Contest

CONTEST ALERT! 

We want to see photos of your farm dog! A lot of our customers have 4-legged companions on their farms, so we've teamed up with Planet Dog to give away dog toys from their Orbee-Tuff® Produce Line.

Click the photo below and follow the instructions on how to enter:

Contest ends April 27th, good luck!

Get Growing Maine - Enter to WIN

Johnny's is proud to sponsor Get Growing Maine, a statewide fundraising raffle for the Maine Federation of Farmers' Markets and individual participating Maine farmers' markets.

Mainers: Enter to WIN a $100 and $500 Grand Prize Johnny's gift certificate!

Buy your raffle tickets at participating local markets (Augusta, Bangor, Bath, Belfast, Waterville, Norway, Sanford, Skowhegan, Thomaston and Rosemont Markets) starting this weekend and/or online at www.mffm.org starting May 10th

Herbs to Plant Now for a Fall Harvest

Looking to complement your harvest of fall vegetables this year? Herbs can be a great addition to your market offerings. Herbs like Parsley, Sage, and Leaf Fennel are perfect companions to your selection of winter squash and onions.

Below is a list of suggested Herbs that you can plant now to harvest this fall:
Parsley
Leaf Fennel
Sage
Oregano
Thyme
Root Parsley
 Herbs are a great way for your customers to season their roasted winter vegetables. They can also be sold fresh for immediate use, or easily dried and stored to be used at a later date. 



Name those Herbs!

 

Leave a comment below this Blog post, and name the two Herbs featured in the photo above.

One randomly selected person who comments correctly will win a packet of seeds of each of the Herbs featured in the picture.

Johnny's Attends Tradeshows in New Hampshire & Maine

Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep, Chris Hillier, recently attended UNH's North Country Fruit & Vegetable Seminar & Trade Show, held in Whitefield, New Hampshire, on October 30th, and MOFGA's Farmer-to-Farmer Conference in Northport, Maine, from November 9th to 11th.

The North Country Fruit & Vegetable Seminar was held at the Mountain View Grand on the day Hurricane Sandy began to roll into New England. Due to the storm, unfortunately, some of the promotional materials we'd sent via UPS to the conference never made it there! Nevertheless, Chris Hillier was able to set up Johnny's booth with a selection of crops on display, as well as various useful informational handouts. Below are photos of our booth and some other shots from Chris of the conference.

A look at our booth – set up and ready to go!

Our pumpkins labeled and on display

Another look at our specialty pumpkins

Katsko Zintchenko, a home gardener from NH, won Johnny's door prize!

A view of the conference room, where the workshops took place

Workshops at the conference covered such topics as using cover crops to manage weeds, how to distinguish beneficial from harmful insects on your crops, and a discussion on growing crops in high tunnels. 

The following week, Chris headed to MOFGA's Farmer-to-Farmer Conference in Northport, Maine, November 9th-11th. Along with Chris, a member of our Contact Center, Dave, a Canadian Sales Team member, Randy, and Steve and Kelly from the Johnny's Research Farm also attended the conference from Johnny's.

Our-Farmer-to-Farmer booth, all set up

Chris was able to bring a preview of Johnny's 2013 catalog to this event, which allowed customers at the show to see what we would be offering as of November 15th. Attendees also got to check out the brand new product images that were displayed on the backdrop of her tradeshow booth, and grab handouts on new items, as well as new growing tips and charts that will be debuting in the new catalog and at JohnnySeeds.com on November 15th.
 

Learn more about MOFGA's Farmer-to-Farmer Conference at MOFGA.org >>

Johnny's 2012 Common Ground Fair Raffle Winners Announced

2012 Common Ground Country Fair — Raffle Winners

Johnny's Selected Seeds is pleased to announce the following raffle ticket winners from the 2012 Common Ground Fair:

• Janis Albright of South Portland, Maine won a $100 Gift Certificate
• Karelyn Closson of Portland, Maine won a $100 Gift Certificate
• Alan Schultz of Worthington, Massachusetts won a $100 Gift Certificate

• Johanna Davis and Adam Nordell of Songbird Farm won the High Tunnel raffle. Songbird Farm is a certified organic vegetable and grain farm situated on six acres of fertile bottomland along the Sandy River in Starks, Maine. 

Johanna Davis and Adam Nordell of Songbird Farm

Johnny's Raffle Winners Announced

Johnny's is pleased to announce the following prize winners from our winter tradeshow raffles.

• Jeff Bussell, E. Boston, MA -- Garden Hod
• Linda Hooker, Oxford, ME -- Quick Hoops™ Bender package (Bender, 50' row cover, Book)
• Lynne Zimmerman, Bethel, ME -- Quick Hoops™ Bender
• Ethel Murphy, Portland, ME -- Garden Hod package (small hod, knife, salad leaves, cold frame, "Growing Garden Seeds" book, gloves)
• Valerie Sulya, Bucksport, ME -- Quick Hoops™ Bender package (Bender, 50' row cover, Book)
• Jan Halloran-Dahl, Winslow, ME -- Garden Hod package (small hod, knife, salad leaves, cold frame, "Growing Garden Seeds" book, gloves)

Winter Growing Survey Contest Winner Announced

Jon and Debbie Butts of Ecofarm in Plant City, FL have been randomly selected as the winner of Johnny's Winter Growing Survey contest. The Butts have won a $50 coupon to Johnny's.

Ecofarm is a small, sustainable family farm that grows a variety of winter and summer produce. According to Debbie, they have had "great results from Johnny's seeds--especially some of the lettuces ('Cherokee', 'Green Star', 'Coastal Star', etc.) and kales ('Redbor', 'Winterbor', 'Toscano', etc.) that have performed well through this exceptionally warm, dry spring."

Jon and Debbie are also members of the Southwest Florida Small Farm Network (SWFSFN) and host a Sustainable Living Show on local Community Radio, WMNF 88.5FM in Tampa, where they often share sustainable gardening information with the public.

Product Reviews Contest Winner Announced

Diane Wilkinson of Fullerton, CA, was selected as the winner of Johnny's Product Review contest for a $50 coupon. Diane, a Johnny's customer for about 30 years, submitted her product review on #2989 Socrates cucumber.

Polar Bear Pumpkin Earns Blue Ribbon at Fair

Sienna's Polar Bear a winner at Fair

Sienna Mazone, age 9, of Dresden, Maine, won first prize in the Great Pumpkin competition at the Common Ground Country Fair in Unity, Maine. Her entry was Polar Bear, a Johnny's Selected Seeds exclusive variety, that weighed in at 65 lb. See story in Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine) daily newspaper.

Sienna, who is home-schooled, helps with the family vegetable garden as part of her science curriculum. Her spring semester science project was to grow a Polar Bear pumpkin, a striking, white-skinned, Johnny’s-bred variety.

Sienna said she started the Polar Bear seed at the end of April in the family's greenhouse and transplanted it to the garden at the beginning of June. She fertilized with organic goat manure and put down Johnny's 's BioTelo black mulch to suppress weeds and warm the soil.

As the plant grew and developed fruit, Sienna pulled all but one pumpkin off the vines to help concentrate the growth to the one remaining fruit. It worked as the pumpkin grew to 65 lbs. It looked so nice, that the Mazones decided to enter it in the pumpkin growing contest at the Common Ground Country Fair Exhibition Hall. There, it won first prize and the Judges award.

Johnny’s hosted a nearby vendor booth and product demonstration area at the fair. Some employees noticed the pumpkin on display and were so impressed with its size, beautiful white skin, and uniformity, they asked if Johnny's could show off Siena’s prize-winning pumpkin at agricultural trade shows this winter. Sienna has given the pumpkin to Johnny’s in exchange for photos of the pumpkin and a tour of the Johnny’s Trial Farm in Albion. She will also receive a box of some 40 varieties of seeds for her garden next summer, including, of course, more Polar Bear Pumpkin seeds!

Look for the pumpkin as it tours northern New England this fall and winter with Johnny's Commercial Sales Rep. Christina Hillier.

Raffle winners announced.

Johnny's is pleased to announce the winners of three separate drawings held recently for $100 Gift Coupons.

Shelia Gallagher of Easton, PA was the winner at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture conference.

Caitlin Burlett of Wild Carrot Farm in Newfane, VT won the top prize at the NOFA Vermon Winter Conference.

Danya Klie of Belfast, Maine won the drawing at the Maine Agricultural Show in Augusta, Maine on January 11-13.

Enter Johnny's Small Space and Urban Gardening Contest

Win a $25 gift coupon from Johnny's by telling us how you overcome the challenges of gardening in small spaces and/or in the inner city. Questions to consider:

• How do you make the most of tight spaces in congested areas?
• How have you transformed an urban eyesore into a green gem?
• How do you keep urban garden pests at bay in your neighborhood?

We'd like to hear from you!

Please send us your story via email or U.S. Postal Service. You'll be eligible for prizes, like a Johnny's baseball cap, gardening books, or a drip irrigation kit! We'll also publish your ideas on the Johnnyseeds.com website and in our Growing Ideas blog. Photos are welcome. You may submit photos via email (2MB size limit) or share them with us on our Flickr photo site. Please limit essays to 250 words of fewer.

Visit Johnnyseeds.com for more information about this contest.