I'm with Sam:
Them racka-frackin [garden] chewin varmint[s]!
Every year I hope for a god crop of
Black Krim (my absolute favorite tomato), and every year I am disappointed. I sow enough seeds to grow 3 or 4 healthy plants. They all produce numerous young green tomatoes, many of which start to ripen. But before they are ready to harvest some dang critters take a few bites out of almost every one. I'm lucky if I'm able to harvest 2; some years I got nothing.
Smaller tomatoes (cherry, teardrop, etc.) seem to do better; this year I got a decent crop of tasty
Yellow Pear tomatoes, and several plants of two varieties of small dark tomatoes are looking good so far.
I usually have better luck with hot peppers. If I get a good crop of hot peppers I'll dry half of them in a low (200 or less) oven, dice them finely then back in the low oven for a couple more hours. When fully dried Ill grind some into flakes and some into a fine powder. With the other half I may pickle some and reserve the rest for miscellaneous uses – dicing and adding to home-made chili, charring and chopping then into my
molcajete (see photo below) with other ingredients (tomatoes, onions, tomatillos, lime juice etc) for several versions of salsa. If I have jalapenos I may go for cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped snacks.
