Harvest Fail...

Remember all those crops I planted? yeah so this was definitely a "first year farmer" experience. Some crops were beautiful, some crops never were, and some crops were taken out by Moribear before their time :(

Tomatoes: destroyed in their green with not even a chance to cry for their lives. Mori discovered that he rather liked the tartness of green tomatoes. Two today, three tomorrow.. an entire bush vine of tomatoes annihilated in less than a month. There were only three survivors who later became amazing tomato basil pasta sauce in memory of their late vine siblings. Next year, vines will need to be Mori-proofed before he realizes what the tomato plants are. Challenge accepted.

he's doing it again.... contemplating which one will be dinner...

Eggplants: my mom's were singled out by Mori for early devouring. We never even saw them pass. Each morning we would wake up to realize one had been taken in the night. But who? But how?? They weren't even ready..... only pieces of soft purple flesh and bits of stem could be recovered... littering the sleeping place of the monster.

Luckily, he hasn't figured out where my eggplants are growing. So they are in hiding and steadily growing. They're a bit late for the season but they are survivors. They will be delicious.





Frig peppers: also late, also surviving. Will report back once tasted.

Rhubarb looked to be dying but bounced back full force! It has made a healthy recovery and will be ready for pies and co. come next summer. Leaves are big, stalks are red; expecting a nice harvest next year.

Cucumbers: ducked out early on. Seemed to be getting with the crew but decided they wanted to go elsewhere. Hopefully we will be revisited for lemon cucumbers next year.

Bok Choy: was amazing. Those things were relentless. Grow ANYWHERE seriously. they were nice, juicy, and very crisp- most disgustingly, full of earwigs. I absolutely hate earwigs. {shudder} but the harvest was good, and was shared with all.

Strawberries were dropped like dominos one by one. Every time one turned red, it was disappeared into the maw of Morizilla. By the time July rolled around to start having some nice ones, he was definitely big enough to start poking his nose into the little berry bush. It was all over from there.

My purple snaps yielded much... but they were not so yummy. I think next year I will have to strategize better.

Artichokes.... out of six, three remain. Technically four but the one is off on its own and winter survival is highly unlikely. The other three i will protect with utmost care. If i can just save ONE......

Nectarines were amazing this year- pruning is the key!!!
Plums are still on the tree: They look pretty good, decent yield, fairly sweet. Should be ready here soon..

Potatoes blue and red: surprisingly I had a lot of little potatolings!! but i confess, i didn't keep up with my vertical potato planting so that's all I had... potatolings. however they're perfect for planting next year and I now know, the location was an ill choice for these particular babies.

Sweet potatoes: well well.... the vines were amazingly lush. I would grow sweet potatoes just for their aesthetic appeal as the little tubers grow. I have yet to unearth and see whether any potatoes grew underneath. Meh... that's not as heartbreaking for me, they were beautiful to see grow. Plus my tomato vines and the sweet potatoes are literally choking each other out. we'll see who the victors are!

So many others didn't make it :( Too little sun, too much water, too much sun, too little water, random torrential rains, giant starving monster... What's left is left and I'm glad to have had the little that I got and next year I will be prepared. Strawberries on the fence- HIGH on the fence!