How to Grow Your Own Food – Weigh In Wednesday

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This past week I was able to harvest over 78pounds of fruits and vegetables from our backyard garden. We pulled up just over 46 pounds of carrots and were able to give some away, sell some to neighbors and enjoy some for ourselves.  What a crazy week it’s been.

I’ve been working on planting new seeds for fall, trimming back plants and just trying hard to keep everything well watered, especially the pumpkins.  Trying to grow 2,000 pounds of food is proving to be a little harder than I thought, but with a little luck, I think I’ll get there.  One vegetable at a time.

Here is what I have harvested so far:

Basil 1 lb 14 oz {how to make pesto}

Beets 39 lb 50z {how to can beets}

Blueberries 4 oz {mixed berry pie recipe}

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 25lb 7 oz {how to make sauerkraut}

Carrots 81 lbs 14 oz {carrot cake recipe}

Cauliflower 2lbs 3 oz {cauliflower hummus rocks!}

Chives 15 oz {chalkboard painted herb pots}

Kale 1 lb 4 oz {how to make kale chips}

Lettuce 14 lb 0 oz {bbq chicken salad}

Mint 2 lbs 9 oz {Fresh Pea Salad with Spinach, Feta and Mint}

Onions 5 lbs 9 oz {Kentucky Fried Chicken Cole Slaw}

Oregano 2 lbs 7 oz

Mushrooms 9.25 oz {read more about how I grew mushrooms}

Peas 34 lb11 oz {fresh peas and bacon recipe}

Peppers 7 oz

Potatoes 5lb 8 oz {potato soup recipe}

Radish 15lb  12 oz {how I bartered radishes for avocados}

Raspberries  11 oz {how to make a raspberry buckle}

Spinach 2lb 5 oz {garlic spinach dip recipe}

Sprouts 10 oz {how to grow sprouts}

Strawberries 6lb 6 oz {dehydrated strawberries are awesome}

Swiss Chard 24 lb 5 oz {rainbow Swiss chard recipe}

Tomatoes 3 oz {roasted corn salad with tomatoes and feta}

Zucchini 4 lb 9 oz {how to make zucchini relish}

Miscellaneous 8lb 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}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that’s what I’ve grown so far this year… How about YOU?

How is YOUR garden doing?

Total Food Harvested in 2012: 300 lbs 4.25 oz

I have spent a total of $484.86 on seeds, soil, plants and supplies for this year.

Looking for a new kitchen scale? Amazon currently has the Ozeri Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale, on sale for $16.25.  This scale comes in severeal different colors and have great ratings.