Lilacs, I'm sorry, I'm a little bit confused by your post. Are you talking about the heirloom variety 'Evergreen' which is a true GREEN tomato which is green fleshed with a chartreuse skin even when fully ripe? If so, those will always be green in color, but they'll taste ripe when soft. If you're talking about regular red varieties, yes, many of them, if they are physiologically mature enough when picked, will slowly ripen in a cool place. Those that are too immature (basically, severed from the plant before the seeds reach the stage they could be viable) will never ripen, but instead will shrivel and rot. You can help these to ripen by doing the following -- 1) wash them in a weak bleach solution (1 part bleach to 10 parts water) or in half water, half hydrogen peroxide, then rinse and dry thoroughly. 2) Place them in a single layer in a newspaper lined cardboard box or plastic storage container, and cover them loosely with another layer of newspaper. 3) Place the container somewhere cool (50 to 60 degrees is best). 4) Check them every 3 or 4 days, and remove those that are turning red to a warmer place to ripen the rest of the way, and be sure to discard any that develop rotten spots before it can spread to others. I've found that I generally can have home-grown tomatoes this way until Thanksgiving or later, and, although not nearly as tasty as vine-ripened, they are still better than the cardboard ones from the store. And yes, if you put your plants somewhere sheltered and cover them, it will buy them some time. If you have a garage or someplace you can put them, pot and all, and basically stop watering them, this too can be used to hold them for a while. Finally, some people pull them up from the soil and hang the entire plant with the green fruits in a cool basement or garage, and many of the tomatos will slowly ripen on the vine.

As long as you don't get a frost that will mar the tomatoes you can leave them longer. You can always pick a few and wrap them in newspaper and bring indoors. The larger ones will ripen fairly quickly. You can upwrap them to check on the ripening process and rewrap the still green ones and check again in a few days. The longer it takes to ripen indoors the more they taste like store bought tomatoes.

Bob, I do not believe I have had quite as strong of a reaction to tomato plants as what you experienced, but yes, it happened to me in about 2000. Did it last? Not completely. After the initial outbreak/reaction, it was a sporadic thing for a couple of years. It hasn't been as bad since that first year. For me, it is the worst when the sunlight is very strong...so it happens more in, say, July and August, but not so much in April or May, or in Sept.-Oct. With me, it only happens with green plants, so I have no problem making all the contact in the world with dead plants when I'm removing them after frost. I don't know what to tell you except that I take Claritin almost every day and sometimes still have a tomato reaction. It hasn't stopped me from growing them or eating them. I do often wear one of Tim's old, white, long-sleeved cotton dress shirts when I am doing a great amount of picking tomatoes. It helps if I can avoid making direct physical contact between my skin and the tomato plants. Obviously, wearing thick or impermeable gloves (I wear nitrile gloves) helps too. I think the amount of contact is what brings it on because I can run outside and pick 3 or 4 tomatoes for lunch and not have a problem, but let me stay out there picking tomatoes for an hour or two or three and I am in for itchy rashes on my arms and many of the other symptoms you described. I have friends who aren't supposed to eat tomatotes (their tongue and lips itch and then go numb and they can even have breathing difficulty) but they eat them anyway. For them, cooked tomatoes are not as much of an issue as raw ones, so cooking them must deactivate some enzyme or something that is what their bodies are actually reacting to. I hope your allergy is temporary or at least lessens in intensity. Dawn

The jars in the pictures above contain a small amount of red bell pepper and/or ripe jalapeno pepper. You can also add in some carrot or veggies of other colors to increase the eye appeal of the contents. My relish is so popular in the neighborhood, that I have to make a lot of half pints for giveaways. Here at the house, we consume about 5 or 6 pints each winter, the other half of the dozen I referred to above are half pints that those neighbors get. Other things that can be added are onions (red/yellow/white), tomatillos, partially ripened tomatoes (all colors/sizes), and, of course, cucumbers. The key is to use things that are firm, like pickling cucumbers are firm. I've tried the veggie dogs and burgers and other such things as tofu. I was raised on mainly wild game, and can reaffirm that I am still a lifelong carnivore. I respect other folk's life styles, but my body is accustomed to animal protein. You can vary the pickling process to get the taste you prefer - sweet, dill, kosher, etc. You can also add this to fresh salsas and really blow away your guests with a taste they might never guess. Take care and good eating.