What happens to crops that aren't harvested?

[NewJeffCT]

Friday night, the players will be stopping by a nearby farm where an attack recently took place. They will find the farmers dead and the place overrun by ghouls.

My question, though, is that the farmers have been dead for a couple of weeks now - what would have happened to the stalks of corn that were due to have been harvested those two weeks earlier? Do they keep growing, but become overripe and spoiled? Do the cornstalks die?

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Depends on the variety of corn, how much moisture there has been in those two weeks, and other local weather conditions. Which means you've got a lot of leeway. But barring extraordinary conditions (e.g. torrential ran and no sun during that time), the most likely occurance is that you'll have a mixture. Some of the corn will still be edible (although having lost some flavor), some will be going to seed (i.e. drying out such that it can be preserved in a cold place and used to plant next year), and some will be more bug ridden than normal. (Where "normal" is also going to depend on local conditions, technology, how cold the prior winter was, and such.)

All of the above is ignoring whatever magic has done to substitute for modern fertilizer, bug control, etc.

BTW, unless they actually shuck some ears and inspect more closely, the most obvious sign that the corn is past harvest will be the dried up and generally droopy nature of the stalks.

 

[jonesy]

All of the above is ignoring whatever magic has done...

Hmm. Evil magic corn monsters. The farmers made a deal with someone, that as long as they took care of the crop it would be healthy and plentiful, but now that the farmers are dead a curse is laid upon it? Or would that be where the ghouls come in?

 

[Pbartender]

Another good indicator would be an abundance of wild animals -- especially birds -- taking advantage of the abundant, free, untended and unguarded food source.

Don't forget any farm animals (even vegetable and grain farmers will have a couple of pigs, maybe a milking cow, and probably some chickens and geese, not to mention mules, horses, dogs and cats) that might have either died of thirst and starvation in captivity, or are now escaped and roaming the area free.

 

[mach1.9pants]

TBH without modern techniques and GM corn would all ripen over a period of weeks anyway, so it wouldn't make much difference. As pointed out animals would be a bigger indicator.

 

[anest1s]

Well, in just few weeks they wouldn't be destroyed.
The presence of undead should have kept the wild animals away.

After the ghouls are killed, the other villagers will probably use the bad corn as food for animals (cows, horses w/e) or they may know a way to preserve it and eat it themselves...I mean they are poor villagers why would they dump something

Except of course if the local lord thinks that the undead have corrupted the plants, and made them unsuitable for eating.

Just some thoughts...I am no farmer after all

 

[NewJeffCT]

BTW, unless they actually shuck some ears and inspect more closely, the most obvious sign that the corn is past harvest will be the dried up and generally droopy nature of the stalks.

Thanks - so, other than maybe some droopy stalks, nothing too different than normal.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

TBH without modern techniques and GM corn would all ripen over a period of weeks anyway, so it wouldn't make much difference. As pointed out animals would be a bigger indicator.

I assumed from the "due to be harvested" part that most of the ripening had already taken place. If the villagers had planned to start early for some reason (e.g. they expected bad weather, had too few hands to wait, etc.), then you might get a different result. In either case. animals would definitely matter. I suspect the local racoons and coyotes are smart enough to evade the ghouls most of the time.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Well, in just few weeks they wouldn't be destroyed.
The presence of undead should have kept the wild animals away.

After the ghouls are killed, the other villagers will probably use the bad corn as food for animals (cows, horses w/e) or they may know a way to preserve it and eat it themselves...I mean they are poor villagers why would they dump something

Except of course if the local lord thinks that the undead have corrupted the plants, and made them unsuitable for eating.

Just some thoughts...I am no farmer after all

Thanks - I didn't want to say that the corn stalks provide partial cover to the ghouls as they close on the PCs through the fields, and then have the players come back and say, "well, it's been two weeks, the corn would be all dead, withered and blown away by now if not harvested right away..."

 

[nedjer]

Ergot