There are a lot of things we have in the works, but with time marching on one really can't afford to wait till all the ducks are in row.

So with time a'wasting we are just going to announce our collective growing challenge for 2009 while Jordanne and crew work on a real time nifty widget that will be able to track everyone's harvest.

In the meantime you can post your harvest tallies here on this forum and then when the widget is ready you all can then transfer the data over.

Oh and before you think that this goal is unobtainable.  Think about it, so far we are nearing 2,500 FG that means each of you would need to harvest 400 lbs a piece.  OK that maybe a stretch but by summer we hope that there will be nearly 5000 FG and that would mean only 200 lbs each.   Of course we'd do our bit by (God willing) contributing our couple tons of produce.

Imagine all these food that doesn't have to be truck, shipped, stored or flown in from hundreds/thousands of miles away.  By cutting the distance from farm to fork we are cultivating a more local food system.

I am excited are you? You in?

Ready for the challenge, OK here it goes!

Collective Growing and Harvesting Effort

Path to Freedom and Freedom Gardens aim to show people that they don’t need acres of space to begin growing food, and that gardening can reduce your food bills, food miles and create a more sustainable way of life right in your own backyard.

Last year we launched the successful 100-foot Diet Challenge encouraging individuals and families to eat at least one homegrown meal a week. The overwhelming response led to the creation of Freedom Gardens.org, an online social networking community of nearly 2,500 gardening enthusiasts who are fed up with foreign oil, frequent food miles and high food prices—and who want to band together with like-minded folks.

So, this year, we want to expand the scope and impact of the 100-foot Diet Challenge and think big—really big! Are you ready for the 100-foot Diet Challenge 2.0?

1 MILLION POUND FREEDOM HARVEST CHALLENGE

Freedom Gardeners Dig for their Dinners—Together!

For over eight years now, we have tallied our garden's yearly harvest from our 1/10 acre plot in Pasadena, California. This year, we are encouraging backyard gardeners from around the world to join us and dig for their dinners, weighing-in for a secure and free future.  Collectively, we hope that our final harvest tally will reach or exceed 1 million pounds!

Why?

A typical meal made from supermarket-bought ingredients consumes between four to 17 times as much oil for transportation than a meal made from locally grown ingredients (2002 report from the Worldwatch Institute).

What does “freedom” look like? How can “freedom” be quantified, made tangible? At Freedom Gardens, we don’t just want to talk (or write) about freedom. We want to SHOW what true food security is - food grown by the people.

With the economic downturn and looming food crisis a case has made that home gardens could grow 50% of humanity’s food supply on less than 10% of the world’s arable farmland. [http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47679]

Home gardens are one of the most reliable, efficient and democratic ways of producing food ever invented. An average of 1/10 of an acre (4,300 square feet) of well-tended, intensive garden is all that is needed to meet the food needs for a person (including adequate protein) who eats rather low on the food chain. [http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47679]

During times of crisis in the past, people have banded together to grow their own food. For example, in 1943, Americans planted over 20 million wartime gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year.

There a number of benefits for growing local - saves money, contributes to good health and the overall environment. Now, with our ever increasing awareness of food security, more and more people are growing and preserving their own food.

These one-trowel revolutionaries are digging their way to a free and secure future!

How?

By keeping track of your harvest!  Every little bit counts, it all adds up.

We understand that each person has a different situation: amount of growing space, climate and soil challenges, and limited time.

Not all garden plots are equal. But backyard and front yard gardens, windowsill, patio, container, community gardens, allotments, school gardens—they all count.

However, through a collective effort, we can show—together—just how much food can be grown!

So, get yourself a reliable scale and keep a clip board or notebook and pen or pencil nearby.

Every time you harvest something from your garden, weigh it.  Tally the numbers at the end of each month and post your results here. 

And take pictures! Remember, we want to SHOW what freedom looks like! Take pictures of your garden; your harvest; your homegrown, home-cooked meals; your pantry stocked with home-preserved goods.

Share those photos online at Freedom Gardens or at FG Flickr group

If you have extra bounty consider sharing with local food bank, senior center or homeless shelter.  Let everyone enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Join

Start tallying up your harvest here on this forum post.   (tally harvest from your garden from Jan 09 thru Dec 09)

You dig it?  So grow, weigh, eat and preserve it! Let’s see what 1 Million Pounds of Freedom looks like!

This is the start of a one trowel revolution, let’s get growing.

Orginally published at: Little Homestead in the City

Sign me up!  Do we start tallying in Feb. or can we count January also?

GREAT IDEA!!!

Sounds fun! Count me in! I just need to set up a scale area. What type would you suggest?? I can't wait to see how much we get!

Yes, yes.  January tallies count! This collective growing efforts is harvest from your garden starting January 09 thru Dec 09

Oo! I've been keeping an Excel spreadsheet... implementing "a pint's a pound" my totals come to:

Lemon juice - 10.75 lb

Whole lemons - 8.6 lb (swapped away to FGers)

Olives (canned, incl water) - 15 lb (fruit from OurClanOCuties, 9 lb swapped away to FGers)

Radishes (weighted cleaned, no greens) - 4.5 oz

Total weight: 34.6 lb

and the plum tree's blooming so just wait!

OH! And I have PEAS today! PEASPEASPEAS!!! I'll be harvesting some later tonight - here's hoping I can wait long enough to get them weighed...

Count me in!  After I gloriously announced my 25 pounds of produce for January, I realized I had two more days of the month AND wanted to cook - so my total bumped up to 30 pounds.  Anything over 50 a month will have to wait either until summer or when I get a fruit tree, but I'll happily grow my part and add the total to the site.

Does "found farming" or "urban foraging" count?  That would be the trees whose branches hang over fences into shared or public spaces.  I've been collecting a LOT of fruit that way this month.  I may never have to buy an orange, kumquat, loquat, lemon or grapefruit ever again

Very, very cool challenge!

Actually, found, foraged and swapped is an interesting question.  Whaddya think?  Since most of my fruit trees are still babies, I have been swapping garden greens or eggs for all the citrus that is weighing down others' yards right now.  Those have become meals, juice, desserts, and frozen excess.

Wonder if that's worth yet another category.  It might encourage more people to share and swap!

In any case, I'm in!

My current evening entertainment is trying to figure out how much I would need to grow to provide all my veggie needs.  Then I want to see if I can plant it all.  THEN it will be a challenge to harvest and process it!  But that's what I'm up to.  Others? 

Yes, I'm curious about the foraging too....I gather a lot of wild fruits, nuts, mushrooms, etc.

My January 'egg' harvest was 19.6 oz...I know, pitiful.  But not bad for Ohio in January LOL. 

I think it makes sense to count forage and "sidewalk" fruit, and even to indicate how much of our harvests we swapped/traded away. But if we include everything we grew, foraged, and received in trade, things would get double counted. I would vote for counting what you produce (in which case my olives are dubious - the actual growing would be credited to OurClanOCuties) and forage.

I'm in too...and can see I'm already behind.  Here in sunny north Florida the temperature is projected to drop like a rock these next few days, with lows in the 20s.  Yes, I said 20s and Florida in the same sentence.  Needless to point out, I'll be waiting until NEXT week to plant.

I think having a Swap area on this site would be cool as long as there are folks nearby.  I work for a temp labor service in Tallahassee and since I haven't seen anybody close to me yet, I'll prolly be taking my surplus to the office, since a bunch of our guys are homeless or right on the edge.

Wow.   I am a bit intimidated, but will join also! I have plans/seed starting in the works.

Here's to a great 2009 growing season everyone!!!

I had the same question about 'found' fruit.  Our neighbor let us have ALL his grapefruit, and it's something I would normally buy...can we count stuff like that?

thanks!

also, do we weigh pecans (nuts etc.) before they are shelled?  We usually just shell and eat or as we need them, so those totals might be hard to calculate.

I think you are right Stacey - produced and foraged are good guidelines.  However, if OurClanofCuties didn't pick the olives, but let you forage for them from her trees that might otherwise have gone to waste, it should count for you. 

Ah, the little details!

I'm in!  It's going to be awhile.  We are under several inches of snow with more falling.  Probably won't be anything to report until Fourth Month.  But this summer, there should be, Lord willing, over 300 garlic bulbs to count.  Every little bit helps, I hope.

Is this something I may put on my web site?

OurClanOCuties did all the picking for me and just brought me a bucket of fruit - yay for not having to do as much work! We'd been discussing food around that goes to waste and when I said I'd be happy to try curing stuff, she offered to bring me fruit.

Next year I think she's looking at curing her own! But I've got two other friends with 5 trees between them who've offered to let me forage... I'll darn near have my own factory, which is fitting considering Sunland used to have an olive cannery! So even if my garden flops this year, I should have plenty of olives to trade for produce come October!

Oh, I'm excited although like a few others it's going to be a while for me here in Northern Ohio.  Although this will give me the push I need to get my seeds started and to get my cold frame planted early.  My garlic harvest should help my weight out, and all those tomatoes I plan on planting.  Perhaps I'll plant a few large pumpkins to up my weight.

I'll definitely put a link on my blog. 

 Well, a bit late for me to accurately measure now, but I harvested 7 lbs of tomatoes in January and at least 12 lbs of tangerines and lemons. Add about 2 lbs of greens, so my January total for 2009 is

21 lbs! :D 

Not bad! 

-----Jennna

I'm in! Still have snow on the ground but once it warms up I'll be checking to see what overwintered. There might be a bit for February yet.

Will there be a banner for blogs and such?

Am I totally off base wanting to count eggs as part of my harvest??? 

Andrea - I would totally think eggs and homegrown dairy should count!

Well yay of course I'm in!!! Woohoo!!! Of course our harvest pounds will wait till a little latter because of the snow we received fresh (sigh Again) today. But I will absolutely keep tally on my harvest and post it here!

I doubt I'll have much of a harvest for 2009 since we're starting all over and much of my effort will be spent on projects that won't yield a harvest until next year or later, but I'll be sure to keep track and update with what I do get!

I'm in, but it will be a few months before I have anything to report...the only thing I am harvesting right now is snow :(

Well horse feathers!  Eggs don't apply to this challenge.  With any luck I'll have some rhubarb popping up in the next couple months. 

Re eggs

Its not that they don't apply to the challenge - they do but it would be hard to calculate pounds.  Eggs are more a quanity numerical total (we could shoot for 1 million eggs).  Like we said it's a collective growing effort and we'll encourage everyone not only to keep records of the fruit, veg, nuts and herbs but also records of eggs, diary, honey and even meat produced.

Hope that clarifies things.

Absolutely, this Kentucky girl is in.  I am so excited - Yeah!

Denise

I am in ... This sounds like fun!  I just have to get used to weighing my produce instead of just eating it as I pick it!!!   For January I had about 2 pounds of greens and peas, and 20 grapefruit (and more still on the tree) ... So next month I should have accurate weights, and ongoing totals of produce.

I'm in and just added my tally for January which was 10lbs 8.5oz (every little bit counts right? lol)

• Grapefruit = 30 oz
• Lettuce = 5oz @
• Orange (N) = 59 oz
• Orange (V) = 64 oz
• Radish = 5oz
• Tomato = 5.5 oz
  

How is everyone going to weigh the light stuff like herbs? Usually I just pick a little and add to my cooking as I go I don't harvest a bunch at a time. Hmmmm

Not bad considering my goal for 2009 is 50lbs! Looks like I may make that goal :) Bring on the Summer!

I am very excited about this. Now I just have to keep the kids from eating everything right off the vine.  I don't think a single snap pea has made it in the house yet. Although the big planting of 110 plants is starting to get peas and the other 115 are 14 days behind. So maybe we will finally get enough to bring in and weight.

Stacy I have a few trees on my lot and 9 across the street that I can have all the fruit off of so I am sure there is plenty for us to share. :)

This is going to require me to do some change up in my routine - as I have never been in the general habit of weighing my produce after harvest.  However, I think this is a worthy effort and would like to participate (partially because I am now curious bout the production level of my garden in pounds!), so I guess I will have to drag out my good electronic kitchen scale and a clip board etc and set up a weighing area some where in the utility room.   January has come and gone and all the harvests were eaten and unweighed... so my contribution will be for 11 months of produce.   It's too bad I did not start this at the beginning of January as I have been harvesting carrots, parsnips, a HUGE overwintered potato (found while turning over the fall planted green manure crop), and lots of swiss chard and lettuce.    

Yeah, I may have to just contribute the 11 months.  I ate January!  (burp!, 'scuse me!~)

I'm in, too!  Like several people have already said, nothing yet for me.  I have 12 inches of snow and it's supposed to be -2F for the low the next two days, so it will be a little while before I can grow outdoors.  I have some plans in the works for a little indoor growing, though, so that should help raise my totals!

~Meg

I will have to estimate.  I don't have an accurate scale and much of what I grow also never makes it to the house.  I also have no idea how much of my stuff is shared with community gardeners.

Wow! I  should have been weighing my stuff? We ususally just eat it! Or preserve it... Guess I have to buy a scale, because I want in too!

hey y'all...post on freecycle before you go buying scales!  I posted that I was looking for a set of scales; hanging produce scales, countertop scales, even an set of old baby scales!  I ended up finding a postal scale that weighs up to 50 lbs.  Perfect!  AND it even zeroes out the container you're using so there's no guesswork.  it was a great find!

I am excited to join the challenge, however, I do have a request that these challenges be easier to find on the site!! In the navagational buttons, can we have one called challenges? Even if it points directly to this forum, it would help. Then we can easily find the graphics to post too. I don't see that function on the current navigational buttons.

THANKS!! This is an awesome challenge!
 

We are working on making the challenge more visable.  But we are just swamped right now with webwork it's getting to be a challenge just to keep up with everything. 

Jordanne is working on upgrades to this site but it's taking longer than expected.  In fact due to the slump in donations, lack of Peddlers Wagon and even Freedom Seeds sales some upgrades are on hold till we are able to make this site pay for itself.

That's the state of the website report.  So if you would like to see continue improvements please consider supporting this site.

Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

HELP WANTED

We can't do this alone.

Volunteer needed to tally up totals at the end of the month.  Anyone interested in lending a hand to make this challenge a succesful one.

Thanks

I'm really excited about this too. We live in KS so we won't be able to put any seeds in the ground until March/April (salad greens and potatoes go first). But I can start counting eggs (not as many during the winter and since my chicken flock got thinned out by some coyotes).

I've got my seeds all ordered and will be buying potatos, onion bulbs, tomato and pepper plants locally (can't seem to grow tomatoes and peppers from seeds very well).

GL everyone:)

Mrs. Meyer

Count us in this will be a great way to see how we do this first year.

Our Jan. Tally is 3 large eggs 7 days a week.

I am glad we can count swaps,I just made plans with another to swap

a garden plot for some of her veggies.

mrsmeyer

Thanks for your offer to help! You don't know how much we appreciate folks lending a hand.

January totals are being posted here

February totals are here

What a great challenge...I'm in!  I'm another "snow" person, though, so my totals won't start until later.  Will be starting seedlings under lights soon, though. 

This is a great challenge! I'm in

I don't have snow on the ground but was planning on moving out of state right up until two days ago and so I have done nothing to prepare my gardens. Luckily, I have a long growing season ;)

Do I understand correctly in that I can put the banner on my blog to promote the challenge?

J

GyspyJungle

Thanks for joining.   Yes, feel free you the bannners on your blog.  Just remember to "SAVE AS"

Happy growing

You've outdone yourselves this time. This is a fabulous idea. I can't wait to see what we collectively grow this year.

My total for Jan is 71lb.

Dan

OK, I'm in! I was planning to track my harvest totals anyway, curious to know how much I can grow. So, Jan total was 19.6 pounds. Mostly greens and a few turnips. Can't wait to see how much we get for beets & potatoes ;-)

I'm IN! We'll be puttin' the support beams under the patio roof now cause

I'M HEADDIN' UP TO THE ROOF NOW!!!  AWSOME CHALLENGE!!!

Can't WAIT to take pictures!!  Can't wait to SEE photos from ALL you FOLKS

AMAZING Harvest, Dan! Woo! Hoo!!

WE CAN DO IT! We WILL DO IT!!! GOoooooooo FREEDOM GARDENERS!!!!

Count me in!  Even though it's -1 right now and we still have 3 feet of snow on the ground, I am thikning spring, planning the garden and ordering seeds/plants!  I bought a kitchen sprouter today, so I'll start my tallies there :-)  Just used the last of the cabbage from last years root cellar, and the last of the onionis, still have potatoes and lots still in jars and the deep freeze, but I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt!

toodles, val