If you want to see some real agriculture festivities, get to the Common Ground Fair, put on by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. It happens at a beautiful organic farm in Unity Maine every fall - this year it's Sept 21 thru 23. Nationally known speakers,world-class organic produce and livestock, and lots of alternative lifestyle and sustainability info. Not a few hippies to gawk at, either. Here is a link that might be useful: MOFGA calendar

If you cut and bring them in, they will pretty much dry from there, no more ripening. If you leave them and they freeze, they will dry from that point on. I don't think it would make much difference what you do as far as the end result goes, but if the seeds are developed and full inside the shells, about all they have left to do is dry down, anyway. Pick whatever option you like best, then try them after they have dried down.

I find it very interesting that fruit that froze solid rebounded when thawed....it would seem to imply you could hold the fruit in that condition, as usually it is the act of freezing that causes cell damage. Although there is that strange phenomena with cold tolerant greens where if you allow them to thaw in place on the plant they are fine, but if you cut them and thaw in the house they are trash

I have had some of the thorny Asian eggplants and decided that I didn't care for any use I could think of for them ... Maybe, Morellel De Balbis is similar. This year, I tried growing Chinese Lanterns as an ornamental. Wow! If some in the family can take a frost, Chinese Lanterns proved that they wanted only the most pleasant conditions and my June garden didn't provide it. I'm not sure if they will ever bloom. They barely survived the seesaw temperatures in the early season. Anyway, here is an article in Mother Earth News about the Marellel De Balbis. They say, "will take light frosts to as low as 25 degrees Fahrenheit without much damage" so there's some confirmation on frost hardiness. I wonder if I'd had that inadvertent test of tomato cold tolerance by 2010 when I wrote the above post ... those were plant starts and I moved flats of tomatoes out of my heated greenhouse into an unheard plastic hoop house just in time for a light frost. Those tomatoes had never experienced anything below 60°f. Those wonderful Bloody Butchers, which can produce so early, died! It was only 37° ! I know it was that temperature that killed them because they were sitting right beside the thermometer. Here's the strange thing: the Bloody Butchers were in the middle of the hoop house. Some tomato plants were much closer to the plastic film. Branches died, leaves died ... no other plants died amongst the others! So, later maturing varieties survived the near-frost conditions better. I really think that setting fruit is what is often being taken into account when accounting for early maturing. It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with hardiness ... maybe in a few more years of plant breeding, it will. Steve