Terrible humans: Tomato edition

We’ve had some fun with growing a bit of food in our small yards. Oranges, lemons, and pineapples have come through nicely, and we planted a mango tree a few months back but it will take a year or years to start producing.

We also planted tomatoes from seeds I got at the library–on the Big Island all library branches have a seed library maintained by a local gardeners association. It took a few months but a few weeks back we saw a couple of tomatoes starting to bud. Yay!

But then they were gone! The cause, or even that it happened, was unclear, and then two weeks ago we saw some new babies. They were coming along, one was starting to turn red, and then BOOM!

This morning they were just gone. No trace or paw prints, like you would expect if an animal had got to them, so it must have been a person. We have some kids in the street who’ve played pranks before and this is my best guess as to who.

Viv and I were both really upset. I realize there are a lot of worse things going on in the world but you can’t help your emotional reaction. The plants are okay so hopefully next ones that grow, whoever did this will leave them be.