Tears.........sniff sniff

This is very sad.....there will NOT be any nectarine tarts, or jelly, or jam or anything yummy. 

Sniff, sniff.

Our nectarines have fallen to the dreaded brown rot disease which can affect stone fruit trees, destroying their crop virtually overnight.

Sniff, sniff.

It was a sad day yesterday when I excitedly went to check my nectarines.

 

This fruit was only days away from being ready, thankfully I had eaten a couple straight from the tree last week, they were close, so freaking close I could smell them from my bedroom......but not quite close enough.  

Mmmmm yummy nectarines.

 This is a fairly young tree we think as it hasn't produced much fruit over the 4 years we've been here, in fact this year was the first year we thought we'd get a good crop, alas it is not to be! Sniff sniff. 

Sniff sniff is so right!

I feel like I want to go 'waa waa' but it is only fruit after all and I am almost a grown up - sometimes!

This happened to our peaches year before last, it's a tragic event, especially if you've been hanging out to eat the fruit and then to miss it by a day or so is heartbreaking. We've now got a bit of work to do to try to stop the rot from returning next year. I understand that it happens when the fruit is setting way back when you have flowers, something to do with the humidity. I could be wrong so if any of you know please let me know by commenting in the comments box. I'm fearful now that the peach trees will again be infested and that really would have me howling! You'll probably hear me if it does, so listen out. You can read more about brown rot here.

The fruit itself wasn't even ripe so between my tears and disbelief I proceeded to pick as much as I could that were still looking okay, it's so sad to see the shrivelled up fruit still stuck to the branches though and to think it virtually happened overnight.

This is all I managed to save!

Well, some is better than none - I guess, cooked in a sugar syrup they will be delicious served with homemade apple sponge, the Tones absolute favourite and maybe a bit of custard....just maybe!

I wasn't happy though! I'm still not happy! Sniff Sniff