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!

Sign Up for a FREE National Young Farmers Coalition Membership

Sign up for a FREE National Young Farmers Coalition membership- sponsored by Johnny's!

Visit Johnnyseeds.com and sign up today >>>

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• Our monthly JSS Advantage Newsletter
• Seasonal Selection, Planting, Cultivation, Harvest, & Marketing Guidance
• Leading Product Reviews & Recommendations
• Notice of Sales, Special Offers, & Promotions
• Introduction to New Products & Emerging Trends
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Events, Conferences, & Tradeshows We're Attending

2014–2015 Schedule

We'll be continuing to update our 2014–2015 schedule at Johnnyseeds.com — check back at your convenience.

Event Location Dates Hoes Down Harvest Festival Guinda, CA October 4–5, 2014 European Seed Association (ESA) Annual Meeting Lisbon, Portugal October 12–14, 2014 Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition Moultrie, GA October 14–16, 2014 Mother Earth News Fair • Topeka Topeka, KS October 25–26, 2014 North Country (NH) Fruit & Vegetable Seminar Whitefield, NH October 29, 2014 Farmer to Farmer (Maine Organic Farmers  & Gardeners) Northport, ME November 1, 2014 Growing Power Urban & Small Farms Conference Milwaukee, WI November 7–9, 2014 Tilth Producers of Washington Annual Conference Vancouver, WA November 7–9, 2014 Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Sustainable  Agriculture Conference Greenville, NC November 10–12, 2014 Asia & Pacific Seed Association (APSA) Asian  Seed Congress Macau, China November 10–14, 2014 Pacific Northwest Vegetable Association (PNVA)  Conference & Trade Show Kennewick, WA November 12–13, 2014 Mississippi Fruit & Vegetable Growers Association Conference Jackson, MS TBD Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional  Network (ACORN) Halifax, NS, Canada November 12–14, 2014 National Young Farmers Conference at Stone Barns Pocantico Hills, NY December 03–05, 2014 Great Lakes Expo (GLEXPO) Grand Rapids, MI December 9–11, 2014 New England Vegetable & Berry Growers  Association (NEV&BGA) Manchester, NH TBD State of Maine Agricultural Trades Show Augusta, ME January 13–15, 2015 Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism, &  Organic Conference (ISCAOC) Springfield, IL January 07–9, 2015 Great Plains Growers Conference St Joseph, MO January 08–10, 2015 Southeast Regional Fruit & Vegetable Conference Savannah, GA January 08–11, 2015 Minnesota Organic Conference St Cloud, MN January 9–10, 2015 Northeast Organic Farming Association of  Massachusetts (NOFA–MA) Winter Conference Worcester, MA January 10, 2015 Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group  (SSAWG) Conference Little Rock, AR January 14–17, 2015 Ohio Produce Growers & Marketers Association  (OPGMA) Congress Sandusky, OH January 19–21, 2015 NYSVGA Empire State Producers Expo (New York  State Vegetable Growers Association) Syracuse, NY January 20–22, 2015 Indiana Horticultural Congress Indianapolis, IN January 20–22, 2015 Vermont Vegetable & Berry Growers  Association (VVBGA) Fairlee, VT January 21, 2015 Ecological Farming Association (EcoFarm) Conference Pacific Grove, CA January 21–24, 2015 Practical Farmers of Iowa Ames, IA January 23–24, 2015 Northeast Organic Farming Association of  New York (NOFA–NY) Winter Conference Saratoga Springs, NY January 23–25, 2015 American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) Vegetable  & Flower Seed Conference Tampa, FL January 24–27, 2014 Scotia Horticultural Conference Greenwich, NS, Canada January 26–27, 2015 Mid-Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Convention Hershey, PA January 27–29, 2015 Pacific Agriculture Show Abbotsford, BC, Canada January 29–31, 2015 Guelph Organic Conference Guelph, ON, Canada January 29 – February 1, 2015 Texas Organic Farmers & Growers Association  (TOFGA) Conference San Antonio, TX January 29 – February 01, 2015 Virginia Association for Biological Farming  (VABF) Conference Richmond, VA January 30–31, 2015 Northeast Organic Farming Association of  New Hampshire (NOFA–NH) Concord, NH January 31, 2015 Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture  (PASA) Farming for the Future Conference State College, PA February 04–07, 2015 Missouri Organic Association (MOA) Conference Springfield, MO February 05–07, 2015 Organicology Portland, OR February 05–07, 2015 Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association  (OEFFA) Conference Granville, OH February 13–15, 2015 Northeast Organic Farming Association of  Vermont (NOFA–VT) Burlington, VT February 14–15, 2015 Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention (OFVC) Niagara Falls, ON, Canada February 18–19, 2015 Farm to Table New Mexico Organic Farming  Conference Albuquerque, NM February 20–21, 2015 Georgia Organics Conference Athens, GA February 20–21, 2015 Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education  Service (MOSES) Conference Lacrosse, WI February 26–28, 2015 Oregon Small Farms Conference Corvallis, OR February 28, 2015 Northeast Organic Farming Association of  Connecticut (NOFA–CT) Winter Conference Danbury, CT March 7, 2015 Harvest New England Agricultural Marketing  Conference & Trade Show Sturbridge, MA TBD Mother Earth News Fair • Asheville Asheville, NC TBD Nevada Indoor Agricultural Conference (AG • NV) Las Vegas, NV TBD International Seed Federation (ISF) World  Seed Congress Kraków, Poland May 1–31, 2015 PNW Mother Earth News Fair (formerly in  Puyallup, WA) Albany, OR TBD

New for 2014 Products - See Them Now

Johnny's Time Spent at the NOFA NY Winter Conference and the PASA Farming for the Future Conference

Johnny's Maine-based Territory Sales Rep, Kristen Dubord, recently attended the NOFA NY Winter Conference, held in Saratoga Springs, NY, January 25–27, 2013 as well as the PASA Farming for the Future Conference in State College, PA February 6-9, 2013.

NOFA NY Winter Conference

The conference offered a great selection of workshops on topics such as sustainable farming, soil health, grain production, and many others. Each morning, tradeshow attendees could additionally participate in a yoga session! The Keynote Address, which you can read here on the NOFA-NY website, was given by Scott Chaskey of Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, NY. You can also view conference programs for 2004-2013.

While at the Johnny’s booth, tradeshow attendees could demo our Four-Row Pinpoint Seeder, grab a free Johnny’s bumper sticker, take a new catalog, enter our raffle, ask Kristen any number of growing questions, discuss concerns, and learn about our new selection of products. Congratulations to our raffle ticket winner, Jacob Diaz of Slow Roots Farm in Kingston, NY. You can learn more about Slow Roots Farm at their website.

While at the conference, we found the most popular informational sheets we offered concerned our Planting Programs. You can learn more about these programs, such as What a Planting Program Is, What the Key Elements Are to Implementing a Successful Program, and Why to Use a Planting Program at Johnnyseeds.com, as well as which varieties are best to plant (and harvest) when.

We give out Johnny's bumper stickers at our booth

A look at the Johnny's booth, all set up

The conference program

 You can learn more about the NOFA NY organization, as well as their Winter Conference, at their website and official Facebook page.

 
PASA Farming for the Future Conference

According to the PASA website, this year’s conference hosted an audience of  “around 2000 people from 30 states. Attendees included over 950 farmers, and 219 scholarship recipients.” If interested, you can also check back at the PASA website to hear audio files from the conference, from Organic Voices.

The conference offered three full days of educational workshops, opportunities to explore the exhibitors’ booths, social events, and more. On Friday evening at the conference, there was a movie viewing of three films, as well as a social hour featuring “snacks and drinks that [were] regionally sourced.”  

Once the Johnny’s booth was set up, we featured poster boards with information on the Quick-Cut Greens Harvester and our 'Lunchbox' Series of Snack Peppers. We also featured several information sheets on new and best-selling products such as our 'Jasper' tomato, specialty pumpkins, butternut squash, and our organic pepper lineup.

If you, too, attended either of these conferences, we'd love to hear from you in follow-up. Feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section, below — or visit with us on Facebook anytime!

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

USDA releases new Plant Hardiness Zone Map

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released a new color coded Plant Hardiness Zone Map for the United States.

Plant Hardiness Zone Map

The USDA has collaborated with Oregon State University to produce an updated Plant Hardiness Zone Map -- the first since 1990. According to the USDA's website, the new map features much greater detail than the old version, in part because the map was created using digital or Geographic Information System (GIS) based data combined with a "sophisticated algorithm".

The USDA's upgraded website is more user friendly and well worth a visit. Improvements include:

• Interactive map with zoom and customized terrain adjustment
• Downloadable Plant Hardiness Zone Maps available in several different sizes and resolutions.
• Hardiness zones searchable by zip code, state, and region.
• GIS data downloads (license necessary)

The latest map shows a slight warming trend compared to the 1990 edition. The USDA reports that the new map is generally a half a zone warmer than the earlier version. The USDA has also defined two new hotter zones that didn't exist on the previous map -- zones 12 and 13.

Read more about the new map on the USDA's Plant Hardiness Zone Map website.

Johnny's "Pistou" Fares Well in Writer's Mini Basil Trial

Pistou, our smallest basil, topped Green Globe in a head-to-head trial conducted by Helen Chesnut, a gardening columnist for the Victoria (British Columbia) Colonist.

Read story "February Brings First Hint of Spring" here.

Pistou Basil

Pistou is a Greek variety that does well in small pots. Leaves are small -- only about 1/2" in size. However, don't let its lack of size fool you; Pistou has a good strong flavor.

Helen also writes about Costata Romanesco, one of our top zucchinis. An heirloom, Costata Romanesco is a favorite Italian variety with great, nutty taste and a distinctive appearance. Costata is also a prolific producer of male buds and blossoms, which are excellent for cooking.

Costata Romanesco