This year my goal is to grow 2,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. I think I can do it. With 16 raised garden beds, a greenhouse, a raspberry patch and a few more planting beds sprinkled throughout our property, I believe growing 2,000 pounds of food is an attainable goal. Even if I do live right in the middle of high maintenance suburbia, and my neighbors think I’m nuts. ~Mavis
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Holy canolies!
Well it was a great week for harvesting tomatoes and greens, but the big winner was pumpkins! Yesterday I was able to harvest a little over 170 pounds of pumpkins from our backyard pumpkin patch, plus the day before our big harvest, Girly Girl’s kids were able to come over a pick several pumpkins for their front porch as well.
Even though things are staring to wind down in the garden, there is still plenty to do outside. I still have my fall potatoes to harvest, as well a more squash, Swiss Chard, kale and there are still a few tomato plants to pull yet. Let’s just hope I can get the 225 +/- pounds of vegetables I need to reach my goal of growing 2,000 pounds of produce in our backyard garden before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Eeeek! I’m excited!
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Here is what I have harvested so far this year:
Basil 1 lb 9 oz {how to make pesto}
Beans 21 lbs 3 {green bean salad, how to can green beans, dilly beans}
Beets 58 lb 20z {how to can beets}
Blueberries 4 lb 9 oz {mixed berry pie recipe}
Bok Choy 3 lb 1 oz
Broccoli 4lb 14 oz {pasta salad with broccoli, carrots, and sun dried tomatoes}
Broccoli Rabb 1lb 6 oz {chickpeas with broccoli raab and bacon}
Cabbage 57 lb 0 oz {how to make sauerkraut}
Carrots 117 lbs 6 oz {carrot cake jam recipe}
Cauliflower 4 lbs 11 oz {cauliflower hummus rocks!}
Chives 1lb 3 oz {chalkboard painted herb pots}
Cucumbers 55 lbs 5 oz {cucumber salad}
Anna Swartz Hubbard Squash 184 lbs 1 ounces {Hubbard Squash Pie}
Butternut Squash 3 lbs 9 oz
Golden Hubbard Squash 22 lbs 5 oz
Sweet Meat Squash 9 lbs 13 oz
Kale 4 lb 1 oz {how to make kale chips}
Lettuce 14 lb 6 oz {bbq chicken salad}
Mint 4 lbs 12 oz {Fresh Pea Salad with Spinach, Feta and Mint}
Onions 34 lbs 9 oz {Kentucky Fried Chicken Cole Slaw}
Oregano 4 lbs 15 oz
Mushrooms 9.25 oz {read more about how I grew mushrooms}
Peas 38 lb 13 oz {fresh peas and bacon recipe}
Pears 8 lbs 15 oz {how to make pear jam}
Peppers 5 lb 8 oz {Homemade Salsa}
Potatoes 70 lb 10 oz {potato soup recipe}
Howden Pumpkins 59 lbs 11 oz
Cinderella Pumpkins 45 lbs 4 oz {roasted pumpkin seeds}
French Pumpkin 13 lbs 4 oz
Jarrahdale Pumpkin 39 pounds 7 oz
Sugar Pie Pumpkins 3 lb 10 oz {how to make pumpkin puree}
Misc. Pumpkins 352 lbs 11 oz.
Acorn Squash 11 lb 10 oz
Radish 16 lb 6 oz {how I bartered radishes for avocados}
Raspberries 2 lb 9 oz {how to make a raspberry buckle}
Spinach 2lb 5 oz {garlic spinach dip recipe}
Sprouts 10 oz {how to grow sprouts}
Strawberries 18 lbs 9 oz {strawberry basil jam}
Swiss Chard 28 lb 9 oz {rainbow Swiss chard recipe}
Tomatoes 178 lb 9 oz{roasted corn salad with tomatoes and feta}
Zucchini 257 lb 11 oz {how to make zucchini relish, zucchini salad, zucchini brownies}
Miscellaneous 8lbs 2 oz {This means we let someone come and pick vegetables, or did not get a chance to weigh them individually, and this was the total weight of all the vegetables combined}
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So that’s what I’ve grown so far this year… How about YOU?
How is YOUR garden doing?
Total Food Harvested in 2012: 1775 pounds 12.25 ounces
I have spent a total of $516.21 on seeds, soil, plants and supplies for this year.
The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving baskets. ~ Amazon
Desi says
You’re so close!!! So exciting! Let’s hope for some huge tators.
Mavis says
Ha! This isn’t Idaho, but let’s hope I get a decent amount. 🙂
Mary Ann says
Amazing! Looking forward to each weigh in and can’t wait ’til you hit that 2k mark!!!
Mavis says
Thanks Mary Ann. 🙂
momof2cubs says
Love your blog. I follow you on FB and Pinterest also! 🙂 Who cares if your neighbors think your nuts. I bet they are spending more money on food than you are, with even more waste! I admire you! We are renting right now and its hard to plant a full garden, but you have inspired me. I think I am going to get a few herbs and start with that on the porch. lol have to start somewhere right?
Mavis says
Hey, be proud of those herbs, we all have to start somewhere is right. 🙂
subienkow says
Holy crap (sorry for the profanity)
I was looking through your numbers and some perspective set in. Sure, some of your numbers are on the low side, 4lbs of Oregano, 4lbs of Mint, a pound of Chives, and a pound of Basil. Then, when you think of it, those things are the leaves!! You’ve got 10lbs right there of things that are typically sold in ounces!
Again, Holy crap.
My fingers (along with so many others’) are crossed for you. I know there’s no award or prize at the end of this, but when you started, did you really think people from all over the country would be cheering you on?
Mavis says
Holy Crap is right! Thanks for following along on my journey. 🙂
Elizabeth F says
Great job. Are you going to post what your estimated value is on your haul? That is if you had bought in store?
Someone was complaining, I think on here that they paid 1.99 for Honeycrisp apples and they thought that was expensive. They are 3.99 here and I actually bought 2 of them yesterday. They were from Washington but my daughter has a couple hard days and she wanted some really good apples and they are good. They actually originated in our area, not too far away at the University of Minn. Our orchards sell them here, but been a bad year for apples . My husband only picked up bags sauce apples for me.
Sarah says
Weigh in Wednesdays are my favourite! I am practically holding my breath each week as I scroll to your updated total.
You’re totally going to make it, I know!!!
Now go weigh those pumpkins girly-girl’s kids took! You grew them, they should count!!!
Mavis says
Wow! Thanks Sarah, I hope I make it too. It would be especially nice if I don’t have to turn the backyard into a kale farm. 😉
Angie Smith says
Kale chips are delicious… 😉
leslie says
Way to go! I am a little surprised to not see rhubarb on your list. That is a main stay in my garden. Because I have a multi-colored thumb (things turn out and don’t turn out no matter how much I baby them) I can always rely on rhubarb. Also, have you tried purple potatoes?
I live north of you…can you share how you get your carrots so fat and sassy? mine always look sickly and starved.
Mavis says
I planted rhubarb in the spring but was told not to pick it the first year so I didn’t. Purple potatoes are delicious and as for the sassy carrots… I ignore them. 😉 The ones in the picture are French Parisian carrots, they get about 2″-3″ wide and are lot’s of fun to grow.
Carla says
Stumbled across your blog a while ago and love seeing the weigh in Wednesday posts. You are truly an inspiration. Keep up the good work and I just know you are going to break the 2,000 lb. mark!
Mavis says
Thanks Carla! 🙂
Frugal Vegan Mom says
Hi,
Just found your blog through the MMM message board, how inspiring! I would love, love, to have a bigger garden that can provide more for us, I just need to get organized! Maybe next year… we live in MN and the growing season is pretty much over. I think finding your blog was meant to be, my grandmother who I’m very close to is named Mavis, and my little girl, her only great-grandchild, is Jane Mavis. She always tells stories about the large garden her mom used to have growing up in South Dakota.
Mavis says
Yay! I’m glad you found me. Gardening is awesome, I just love it!