The first few strawberries from my second harvest are just about ripe, and I must say that they look phenomenally better than those from the first harvest. No signs of nibbles or rot at all, so maybe I just needed to let the strawberry plants work out all their bugs the first time around. I was kinda confused by those early mutant strawberries, but I guess that's what happens when you get them wet, expose them to sunlight, and feed them after midnight. Live and learn, right?
Also of note, we had a series of huge thunderstorms sweep through our area today. We'd be enjoying the sunlight, and ten minutes later the sky would open up and weep its misery upon us. We even lost power a few times. When I got home from work, I noticed that my tomatoes all looked like little Jim Henson creatures wearing ragged clothes. After the rain has moved on, I'll need to harvest what I can and cover the rest. Albeit effective, that fact alone makes this paper towel method quite a bit more labor intensive than I'd prefer. My interest in those red Christmas ornaments is growing.