Kitchen Herb Value Pack Giveaway

The nice people over at Hometown Seeds contacted me last month to offer me an item from their online store for me to do a review. I’d been to their site before, as one of my newest addictions is to find, buy, and hoard seeds that I may or may not ever plant. I bought a huge pack of heirloom seeds 3 years ago and most of them aren’t even growing because I waited too long. Oops!

Here you can see my massive collection of seeds, sorted into various categories. Since Mr. Pikko is a smalltime survivalist, their Survival Seeds section is actually a pretty fascinating section for me and I’ll probably end up buying seeds, though it likely won’t be a preparedness bank pack because I’ve still got my last purchase to go through… lol

Hometown Seeds offered me one of their Kitchen Herb Value Packs, but as many of you know from my garden updates, I actually already grow 8 of the 10 herbs offered. It seemed like a waste to send me that, so I had them send me a pack of kale seeds instead and you guys get to enter to win the herb pack. Keep reading for details on how to enter!

I got my kale seeds the first week of February. They came in a little ziploc bag and a label with some basic instructions on it. I decided to start these indoors in some Jiffy Plant Pellets. I’ve used these before when I bought one of those little plant nursery kits at Home Depot, but since those things are made out of plastic and eventually crumble after repeated sun exposure, I didn’t want to spend the cash again and opted to go green and cheap by using a recycled chicken tray.

This is a Foster farm tray and pretty deep, so I thought it was a good idea. The instructions say to soak the pellets in warm water until it’s absorbed everything, then you dump out the excess water.

They have nifty little imprints in the middle for you to put the seeds in after the water is absorbed. The really weird part was that they were floating around as seen in the picture above, but when I came back afterward it looked like this:

I have no idea how they managed to line themselves up on their own. I was a little creeped out. It’s possible my little anal-retentive daughter snuck into the kitchen and aligned them, but if not, weeeird!

Anyway, I put two seeds in each one and covered it up gently. The package said 5-10 days germination, so hopefully I’ll see something by early next week! I really hope they grow. Kale needs cool weather, so I have my doubts, but since I love kale chips and bunches are so expensive, I might as well try.

Back to the giveaway! To enter to win a Kitchen Herb Value Pack, which contains seeds to start your own herb garden including dill, oregano, Italian parsley, sage, basil, purple basil, chives, thyme, cilantro, and rosemary, simply do one or all of the following:

• Visit the Hometown Seeds website and comment here telling me what edible seed variety interests you the most. (hey, this IS a cooking blog!)
• ‘Like’ Hometown Seeds’ Facebook page and post on their wall saying that you’re entering Learn 2 Cook’s giveaway.
• ‘Like’ Learn 2 Cook’s Facebook page and comment on the giveaway link to enter.
• Follow @l2cookblog on Twitter and tweet the following: Enter to win a Kitchen Herb Value Pack from @l2cookblog and Hometown Seeds: http://tinyurl.com/69c8q4n

Spring is approaching fast, so be sure to enter so you can have your own herb garden this summer. 🙂

Rules & Limitations:

1. This contest is open to residents of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
2. Limit of four entries per person.
3. One winner will be drawn at random and notified via email, Facebook message, or Twitter direct message. Prize must be claimed within 48 hours or another winner will be drawn.
4. Entries will be accepted until Thursday, February 24, 2011.

Good luck! If you want to shop at Hometown Seeds, be sure to use coupon code 555 to get $5 off orders of $30 or more. This code expires on February 20, 2011.