Nooo! Not my tomato!

Almost two weeks ago, we had a pretty bad summer storm. (I was going to link it here, but my iPad won't support the HTML code. Bummer) if you read my previous post then you know that I pretty much lost all fruits and veggies growing in my garden. I have a few herbs that survived as well as my root veggies.

I did have one tomato plant that survived the hail. The foliage was pretty torn up, but I had one tomato that was going to keep on growing. I was so excited. I have my new canning jars and lids, ready for lots o'tomatoes. Those dreams were crushed. But that's when I saw the ONE Roma tomato. I babied it. I fed it. Watered it. Watched it change from green to yellow to orange. It was just beginning to get a hint of red.
Then I went to the garden this morning. Walking up to greet my one lonely tomato, I discovered it missing. What the heck? Well, I found it. On the other side of the garden. Half eaten. Seriously. If you are going to steal my tomato, at least eat all of it. (squirrel? Raccoon?)

There goes my fantasy of harvesting one tomato this year.

Insert sad face here.

The good news/bad news is this: I left all of the plants in the ground hoping that they would regrow. I watched as my pumpkin and squash plants started regrowing new vines. Good news! Yay! Then, I discovered that the critters have also been dining on my squash blossoms. Ah man! I can't catch a break this summer.

Hopefully, I will be able to harvest herbs this year. At least let me harvest something. No zucchini in the freezer? No raspberry jam in there either? Bummer. If I can't open my freezer, all winter, and have fresh herbs there my heart will break.

I will have carrots and beets for sure. I'm not sure about the potatoes since the vines are completely gone. I thought that they would be fine, but a neighbor informed me that they indeed need the vines to grow underground. We shall see.

The troubles of the home farmer. I can feel the pain of actual farmers that grow cash crops. How devastating to lose all of your hard work to a violent summer storm!