Burst peaches, first lemons, sad corn - our 2015 crop failures & successes

We grow some of our own food, organic of course, but by far not all food. 2015 has been a memorable gardening year in our mountains, or hills to those of you in real mountains. The weather in 2015 until late August has been nuts, really. Winter was mild like the previous one, but spring never really took off. Cold spells into June killed of quite a few seedings and delayed others.

In short, a cold spring, followed by several consecutive dry months, followed by scorching heat to just under 40 C (almost 100 F), and most of the rain during the all important flowering and pollinating period coming down as vicious thunderstorms, some accompanied by hail.

The very first hail storm completely stripped our rescue grape vines - salavaged a few years ago from extinction. They make delicious red grapes, which don't have the, frankly, yukky taste of Concord grapes, and we still plan to make homemade red wine in the future.

Several later gale force storms hit the gorgeous runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) in bloom. During quiet weeks, new flowers had time to produce pods, so the total yield was down by about half.

Add this to a mountain growing season shorter by 4 to 6 weeks compared to the lowlands, and you can get a feeling of what several crop failures in quick succession must have been like to small farmers. Emigrating to America was one of the solutions for the people who lived an toiled here centuries ago.

Corn finally sprouted when sustained temperatures of 20 C and higher arrived, but it remained stunted due to the lack of rain, with plant height about two thirds of that in a normal year. Yield will be 50% of last year's at best. Our great Hokaido pumpkins from the past year produced zero offspring.

Tomatoes were so late that we are getting the first ripe ones only now, which means chilly nights in a few weeks time will reduce yield by about 70% unless we decide to pickle green tomatoes. Lettuce did well, but it always does with a little irrigation from the rainwater barrels. Potatoes were fine, too, and beans did okay despite the losses.
Our most optimistic outdoor proposition at this altitude, the peach tree had been hanging on to peaches the pathetic size of walnuts, which then burst their skins when sustained rains delivered too much water to the stressed tree.

The apple trees have done best this year, the crop promises to be more flavorful thanks to the rainfall shortage. A good thing, too, because we are running out of cider and apple vinegar.

A positive surprise, the lemon tree is loving it and put out five tiny fruits, one of which does not look viable and won't survive the winter indoors.

The accidental avocado plant is branching out nicely after trimming it to turn it into a bush and stands at just under two feet.

A ginger plant, grown out of a small piece of store bought ginger saved for this purpose, is our latest project of impossible plants, with a single stalk about five inches tall right now.