One Hundred Dollars a Month

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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Red Alert!

I need to find something VERY HEAVY to grow between now and the end of the year.  Any suggestions you might have would be great. Yikes!  Maybe I should start to looking into harvesting bark, or dandelions.  Hmmm. Remember the ornamental cabbage I planted a few weeks ago?  Well heck ya it’s going to be harvested.  Who knows, if I get really desperate, I might take up making mud pies again like I did when I was three years old, because technically I am enriching growing dirt, right?  I wonder what 675 pounds of homegrown dirt looks like.

Get a grip Mavis.  Get a grip.

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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 7 oz {mixed berry pie recipe}

Bok Choy 9 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 116 lbs 14 oz {carrot cake recipe}

Cauliflower 4 lbs 11 oz {cauliflower hummus rocks!}

Chives 1lb 3 oz {chalkboard painted herb pots}

Cucumbers 54 lbs 2 oz {cucumber salad}

Anna Swartz Hubbard Squash 184 lbs 1 ounces {Hubbard Squash Pie}

Golden Hubbard Squash 22 lbs 5 oz

Sweet Meat Squash 9 lbs 13 oz

Kale 2 lb 11 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}

Acorn Squash 1 lb 8 oz

Radish 16 lb 0 oz {how I bartered radishes for avocados}

Raspberries 2 lb 7 oz {how to make a raspberry buckle}

Spinach 2lb 5 oz {garlic spinach dip recipe}

Sprouts 10 oz {how to grow sprouts}

Strawberries 16 lbs 15 oz {dehydrated strawberries are awesome}

Swiss Chard 25 lb 0 oz  {rainbow Swiss chard recipe}

Tomatoes 106 lb  7 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: 1325 pounds 1.25 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