five on friday: baker creek heirloom seed giveaway!

In honor of the arrival of spring, I have partnered with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for a giveaway valued at $48! Baker Creek is a provider of rare and unique seeds that we have used in the past (last year we yielded our body weight in striata d'Italia zucchini after sowing right in the ground) and continue to use, so I'm very excited about this giveaway. Here are my 5 favorite things about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds:

Tzimbalo Melon Pears

{1} The seed type and selection. Baker Creek carries non-GMO heirloom and hybrid seeds. What this means is that a lot of their seed varieties are 50+ years old--some as old as 500+ years--and you can harvest your own seeds from the plants you've grown to successfully replant in subsequent years (the heirlooms). None of their plants are genetically modified and any hybrids that they carry have occurred naturally. Then there's the fact that a lot of these seeds are so rare - these aren't plants you can get at your local hardware store (or even nursery). For instance, check out these chocolate pear tomatoes or this mini pink popcorn. You don't grow vegetables? That's fine - there are rare fruit varieties such as this pineapple assortment that can be grown in containers anywhere in the country, herbs such as this Corsican basil, or flowers like this Pink Senorita Zinnia. There are over 2,000 rare seed varieties from all over the world to choose from. It may be the hipster in me, but I can totally get on board with growing something that no one else in my neighborhood does.

Bellvue mixed abutilon

{2} Customer service. I am not exaggerating when I say Baker Creek has some of the best customer service around. If you have poor germination rates of your seeds they have been known to send you new packets, no questions asked. Any issues whatsoever and Baker Creek works diligently to resolve them.

Quadrato D'Asti Rosso peppers

{3} Cheap shipping and bonus seeds! How many times have you gone to order something that you know couldn't cost more than a dollar or two to ship and yet the seller charges $10+ for it? At Baker Creek, you are charged a flat rate of $3.50 regardless of what you order (and they even ship live plants!). If you register during checkout, you will also get 6 months of free shipping on all future orders. Then there's the bonus seeds - each order includes at least one pack of a free seed variety chosen by Baker Creek and the more you spend the more free seeds you get. Jon and I placed an order last month and got 2 free seed varieties!

Pusa Asita Carrot

{4} Philanthropy. Have you ever heard of a seed library? I hadn't either until Jon introduced me to it. A seed library is exactly what it sounds like - a place you can go to borrow or donate seeds. The goal is often to encourage people to get out and plant some of their own food, but it is also beneficial in the event a critical plant species were to somehow go extinct, there to be global crises, etc. An aside / fun fact is that the world's largest seed bank is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault located just 812 miles from the North Pole where seeds are stored in a similar manner as a bank safe deposit box. I digress, but it's really interesting stuff. Baker Creek donates seeds to seed libraries--including one of our more local seed libraries.

ornamental fringed mix kale

{5} Their packaging. This is probably really shallow, but I am a major sucker for a good packaging job. Baker Creek packages their seeds in really fun envelopes that give me warm fuzzies inside. I get really excited when new varieties arrive because I can't wait to see what the envelope looks like.

So now, for the good stuff! Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter to win an heirloom seed collection from Baker Creek valued at $48! The giveaway will close on 3/31 and the winner will be contacted. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: Baker Creek offered to give away an heirloom seed collection at no cost to me as part of this blog post. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Linking up with Amy, Katie, April, Andrea, Narci and Erika!