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My First Harvest of 2009

February 19th, 2009

digmydinner-copyOn Tuesday afternoon I was able to weigh in my first harvest of 2009 for the Freedom Harvest Challenge over at Freedom Gardens. This year they’re trying to get all the Freedom Gardeners to tally their harvests and shoot for a million pounds of produce. I joined several weeks ago, but I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to contribute anything until later this spring when I have my garden is up and growing again.

If you remember back in September when I planted my spinach, you’ll recall I was hoping for an early spring harvest after mulching my spinach throughout the winter. I put a floating row cover over the spinach in late fall and I’ve been periodically checking it throughout the winter. I decided I would mulch it when it froze.
working-in-the-spinach-bed2
This was me checking the spinach bed on 12.29.08.
However, the spinach never froze. I checked it last week on the nice warm day we had and the spinach was looking good, so I decided I could harvest some for a salad.
spinach-in-garden
I went out on Tuesday afternoon and pulled up the frosty row cover and harvested from spinach for a salad that evening for supper. So how much was my first harvest of 2009? 4.5 ounces. It’s not going to help much towards the million pound goal, but it’s a start.
first-spinach-harvest
We enjoyed 6 salads from our harvest and there’s plenty more out there (along with the mache). There’s nothing quite like enjoying a salad on a frosty February day from your own garden. I even got to enter in into my handy file to keep track of my harvests (which will be done as a template soon and available for download).

Is anyone else harvesting already? How much have you gotten so far in 2009?

16 Comments to “My First Harvest of 2009”
  1. Chicago Mike on February 19, 2009 at 7:47 am

    Very Cool! (pun intended)

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  2. farm mom on February 19, 2009 at 8:14 am

    Wow! That’s awesome! Congrats on the first harvest of 2009

    farm mom’s last blog post.. A New Adventure

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  3. allie on February 19, 2009 at 8:32 am

    that is very cool!

    Reply to allie's comment

  4. Andres on February 19, 2009 at 9:52 am

    Congratulations on your first harvest of the year, that is great!

    Andres’s last blog post.. Wintersown Seeds

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  5. deborah on February 19, 2009 at 10:31 am

    I am excited about The Freedom Gardens site and the harvest challenge. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I am just back from both web sites. I did join up as a Freedom Gardener, but could not get the tally link to work on the challenge post. Any ideas?

    deborah’s last blog post.. Forcing the Issue

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  6. Di on February 19, 2009 at 10:36 am

    Yep I’m harvesting! I harvested 10lbs last month and I think I already got that this month :) Though our citrus trees help a lot with that! Your spinach looks yummy! I just pulled out 14oz of mustard greens last night which were delicious in saag paneer!
    And remember every little bit helps! And come Summer you’ll be raking in the lbs anyway!!!

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  7. Annie's Granny on February 19, 2009 at 10:47 am

    I have a tiny early salad garden that has given me 10-1/2 ounces of baby spinach, lettuce and green onions so far. I’m waiting for the beets to get large enough to add weight to my harvest scale ;-)

    Annie’s Granny’s last blog post.. February 18, 2009: I’m a Quadmom!

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  8. Teri on February 19, 2009 at 11:18 am

    I am so envious of your spinach. Makes my mouth water just looking at it. I planted garlic last fall and mulched it but good, but I so wish I would have put in some spinach. The days are warming up, so soon very soon, I can get some in the ground. Thanks for the Freedom link, I think I will play this year.

    Teri’s last blog post.. 49/365

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  9. Maureen on February 19, 2009 at 11:30 am

    I love this challenge! Until this year we never kept track of what we were producing….it should be fun to see if we can reach the million lb. total.

    In our garden, we ended up with 20 lbs. of produce in Jan and have about 18 lbs. so far this month (hey, we’re in California). Lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach mostly, but a few oranges and pecans really added to the totals.
    We’ve also had a fantastic broccoli year, so much so that our kids (who normally LOVE this particular veggie) are starting to beg for green beans – which we ate the last of out of the freezer in January. We are definitely planting WAY more beans in the summer garden!

    Maureen’s last blog post.. Knitting

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  10. Susy on February 19, 2009 at 11:42 am

    Sounds like you’re all well on your way to helping reach the 1 million pound goal. I would like to go out and harvest some wild garlic mustard to help towards my goal as well. There’s snow on the ground today, but perhaps when we have a nice day next week I can get out.

    I’m hoping all of my garlic and other summer crops will really help my total poundage. I know my tomatoes will. Last year I got over 100lbs of tomatoes and this year I’m growing twice as many. I may be able to get 300 pounds total from my garden.

    Reply to Susy's comment

  11. Dan on February 19, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    Wow, awesome job on the fall/winter crop! I tried fall crops this year and they were a complete failure. Mostly because of poor light and the slugs eating them all. I will be trying again this season, a little earlier this time and hopefully I can get results like you have.

    Dan’s last blog post.. The Seed Starting Arsenal

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  12. Judy on February 19, 2009 at 6:07 pm

    I singed up at Freedom Gardens but not for the challenge yet. I’ve gotten just a little lettuce from our indoor box but it’s going to have to make room for seeds soon.

    Judy’s last blog post.. Independence Days- week 11

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  13. warren on February 19, 2009 at 6:26 pm

    Well done! Spinach looks great…I got an envelope this week..thanks a ton!

    warren’s last blog post.. So long old friend…hello new!

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  14. frugalmom on February 20, 2009 at 12:09 am

    Yay on your first harvest. I am just now getting seeds in the mail. I cant wait to get my hands in the dirt.

    frugalmom’s last blog post.. Rainy Days

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  15. Susy on February 20, 2009 at 2:35 pm

    I’m excited to see how much all of us are able to contribute to the Harvest Challenge.

    Reply to Susy's comment

  16. Mangochild on February 21, 2009 at 6:09 am

    Amazing! A harvest contribution in February – you are going to make some serious contributions to the Freedom Challenge, I just know it.

    Mangochild’s last blog post.. Feeling Daunted: seed starting, planting, and using winter stores

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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