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The Tomato Mystery
by Arlene Bernstein
Somebody's eating my tomatoes. Whoever it is waits until they are verging on ripe. The first two just had teeth marks: half of one tomato, then enough of a dent in the second in order to make it unappetizing. Also, who ever this is likes to strike at just about the time I begin watching for that intense red color on the skin that signifies the change from just red to red ripe. The few I picked to preempt the critter were tasteless. I can't really say if it was prematurity or the characteristics of this year. It's been so cool that tomatoes aren't yet fulfilling my expectations from past memory of luscious juicy deliciousness, so delicious that to eat them with anything more than a drizzle of good olive oil and a pinch of fancy salt is criminal.
The vines themselves are thriving. I had no idea Principe Borghese could grow so big. In past years they've not even needed more than a three foot stake.. Whoever this is is concentrating at the moment on Early Girls. He/she has a choice between Enchantment, which I prefer for cooking because it is dryer, and the Early Girls I coddled through the wet cool spring. I do have more plants than I anticipated, because a workman ran over one of my two plants and broke its top off and I rushed to pot it separately and it rooted and grew. That made three. Since I was successful with that, I took some of the suckers from the first round of training and stuck them in pots and then in the ground. I've also left some volunteers in the broccoli and pepper rows as insurance.. I dont know what varieties they will be, but if I have to depend on them, by that time I won't be choosy.
At first I suspected gophers, because there was a gopher hole next to the most apealing plant. Next I suspected birds, as the Oregon Junkos are in abundance and they hop along the ground. Or worse, wild turkeys.. I put up chicken wire along one side of my trellis but then took it down after I saw our dog Posey chasing wild turkeys away from the grapes and all was quiet in the garden for a week or so. I figured Posey was doing her job. Then I began watching two plump specimens.. I almost picked them yesterday, but decided to take a chance on getting them riper because we're having company today and I was imagining showing them off. Hubris! They have totally disappeared, except for a smattering of seeds in the melon patch a few feet away. No evidence like skat or footprints. If it's racoons, I give up. I once tried to raise Moscovy ducks decades ago, and the racoons let me fatten them up, then systematically ate them one by one, disassembling the protective wire nightly as I kept daily repairing the cage. There's one other possibility I dare not think about... After Posey chased the turkeys from the grapes she became curious as to what they were after.
Well, it's now two weeks later and the mystery is solved. Posey has been tied up on the porch the last week due to overwhelming evidence that her taste for ripe fruit and vegetables knows no bounds. Eight of the twelve nectarines my husband Michael was carefully nurturing and protecting from the birds disappeared without a trace, and the lower branches of the tree showed evidence of a large creature having done the deed. Yesterday I left the few ripe tomatoes I had collected on the picnic table on the porch, out of reach of the edge, while I ran into the house to answer the phone. When I returned all the red ones had disappeared, and there was a telltale puddle of juice and seeds on the deck. Anyone with a protected garden and orchard want a lovely, bright, affectionate gourmet vegetarian, frutarian five year old Chesapeke Bay Retriever to add to the family? |
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