I was really looking forward to my filbert harvest this year. For the first time, my trees were starting to produce a significant number of nuts. During the night, a bear came by and cleaned me out. Not only did he take the nuts, he ran off half of my most productive bush. In the end, we only harvested 3 nuts. Good thing we don’t have to rely on them for our winter’s food.
Our little garden was under constant attack from slugs this year. I blame the rainy and cool summer. Our squash suffered the most. Not a single one survived. Too bad, as squash stores well and is another good winter food.
Now gardening for us is at a hobby level. We don’t rely on it for a significant portion of our food. Still, we did get a fair number of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, sunchokes, potatoes, herbs and other odds and ends. Every little bit helps.
The grocery stores are still well stocked, so it’s not a crisis. I can buy what I need for my winter storage. While fresh garden food is nice, a bad harvest wouldn’t be the end of the world. During tough times, however, a herd of deer could completely wipe out a survival garden. That would be a crisis.
Today I can laugh off the damage caused by a bear. In a survival situation, I’d be hunting down that bruin.
-Sixbears
Clicking These Down, Here
11 minutes ago
A bear roast stuffed with fliberts and a deer roast stuffed with garden vegies - now that sounds like a good feast to me.
ReplyDeleteAgree, bear isn't bad braised for several hours with onion and garlic.
ReplyDeleteCertainly doesn't take the critters long to find a handy food supply furnished by the nice man by the lake!
ReplyDeleteWord probably spreads in the animal world about your location, I'm thinking!
Methinks when it's survival garden time, that herd of deer will get thinned out significantly...
ReplyDeleteSometimes you don't raise veggies, you raise venison.
ReplyDeleteSixbear very smart you got the wife to put in a garden as a green field .Now you can go hunting out the back door and bring home the meat :}how many people have you known that hunts that have bought a gun a truck a camper got a club membership then kill a deer every other year and say look at what i save hunting?
ReplyDeleteThat my friend is the future freezer stuffer.
ReplyDeleteThink of it all as a food plot and you're job will be to protect it. Fun job eh ?