That's why I only grow determinates and can the excess harvest. I can get in 2 grows a year on them where I'm at (early/mid-April through early/mid-July + mid-July through mid-October). By the time I've harvested the last heavy set on my mid-October harvest all that's left on the plant are a handful of late ripening toms that I don't care if they make it or not.

I guess that's of no use to people who grow indeterminate slicers...which I'm not a fan of. I love cooking with tomatoes...never developed a taste for them raw or green no matter how they're prepared.

I'd tried so many different ways of ripening green tomatoes and I found the most efficient method is to bag them up together with a single ripe apple. Wait a week and you would be amazed. Green tomatoes are,to me, one of the easiest problem to solve in a garden.

I haven't got this problem because I didn't plant tomatoes this year. In fact, I rarely ever grow tomatoes as I have a strong dislike for them when raw and the plants take up too much space. But when I do plant them I use determinate types because they all ripen at about the same time. Which is perfect for making sauce. This doesn't really answer your question though.

Rodney

If you leave them out, the more mature ones will ripen. But by November you probably won't care.

And the forced-to-ripen green ones don't have the best flavor and are no good for canning. Just like asparagus, sweet corn and strawberries, to everything its season!

Steve

I've been told that you can pull up the plants and hang them in the basement, and the green tomaoes will slowly ripen. Never tried it, though. There are even some special varieties for this. I know someone who freezes green tomatoes because they like them fried, and somewhere I even have a recipe for a green tomato pie . Personally, this time of year I am pretty much "tomatoed out". Of course, next summer I can't wait for that first good ripe one.

I made green tomato salsa this year and was so in love with it, I'm half inclined to pick all our tomatoes next summer while they're still green!

throw a frost blanket over them on the cold nights and keep em going for a while longer...

This is why posts like this are beneficial, to help some of us think things through better according to our own circumstances. The thing I have often heard about determinates is that it is great to get the flush all at once for canning but I had never thought about within the context of the length of the growing season. I will not give up completely on indeterminates, but I think I do need to work adding a few more determinates to my list to help better deal with our erratic weather. I think my limit on growing is 30 plants and there is no way I would get all 30 covered during a frost. This year, our first frost came 3 weeks early. I was beginning to see what may be possible in the future but much of the possibility froze.

I like determinates because it's 80-100 days and done...you can force another flush out of them, but it's usually highly disappointing. It makes space management a plus...but it also forces you to deal with 30+ toms (for pastes) per plant all coming into ripeness within a couple weeks.

As mentioned...I don't do slicers, so canning a determinate harvest and/or making some sauce to freeze is just fine with me, though.

@ nc- crn ..... would you plse name some of the DETs you have grown and like ?

I will also plant more DETs, mostly because of space
management. I think in place two INDETs I can manage three DETs, that is a 50% increase..

Monica (F1) and Viva Italia (F1) tomatoes are my favorites...both hybrid paste toms.

They're very productive, flower/fruit well under hot temperatures, have a bit of sweetness I prefer on the flavor side of things, and produce well within 90 days.

Wish I had that problem this year... lost my entire tomato crop to Gray Mold. Boo-Hoo. In a normal year, we pull any greenie that's got a decent size the evening before the first really freezing frost (we cover the plants up to that point), then wrap each tomato in newspaper and put them in a cardboard box. We've had fresh tomatoes clear up to Thanksgiving some years. And they tasted pretty darn good!
However, this year we are all of a sudden having a bumper crop of bell peppers coming on. They probably won't be nearly ripe when frost comes. Where were they a couple of months ago?!??! So, are 2" peppers worth the picking?

Edie

I pick them and freeze them.

I had this problem last year and was given a tip to pick them and put them in a single layer on newspaper in the basement. They all ripened just fine.

I am currently ripening about 40 or so lbs of green tomatoes in single layers on newspaper in a cardboard box. It is working out great!

If the maters have reached their mature size, and they are unblemished(on the vine or in handling) it is possible to ripen them. Newspaper, shredded paper , ...help prevent rotting.
But the best use that I have found for green tomatoes is pickling and making green salsa, in place of tomatilllo.

I always end up with tons of green cherry tomatoes. I tried pickling them but they weren't that good. This year, I found this green tomato sweet bread recipe online: http://www.food.com/recipe/green-tomato-bread-53325

I tried it last weekend and it was really good. I tweaked the recipe and used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour. I also used coconut oil rather than vegetable oil. Finally, I added a half teaspoon of ginger and another of mace to the cinnamon. I also used half brown sugar rather than all white.

The result was a moist and spicy bread, darker than the one in the photo, with a nice crust. I chopped the green cherry tomatoes in the Cuisinart and they were unnoticeable in the bread, although they smelled horribly bitter and nasty when I chopped them.

I'm not sure if the tomatoes actually help the texture/moistness of the bread but it was quite delicious; I'm going to make more this weekend with my remaining green cherry tomatoes.