All the peppers you mention can be eaten green, including the cayenne. It is better red, but green makes good salsa too. I use green tomatoes for salsa, green tomato relish, fried green tomatoes, pickled tomatoes, and grilled green tomatoes (yes, they are good!) Another nice trick I recently discovered. Cucumbers are related to melons, and under ripe melons have a cucumber taste. So if you melons do not ripen, just pretend you got a large cucumber and you can use it in salads. Even if the melon is a little bit sweet it should work with assertive salad greens like arugula or radicchio. My melons will ripen, I just picked some too early since it is my first year growing melons so I did not know when to pick them, but this is how I found out you can still use them. Cabrita

Thanks, Annie. I might try some determinate tomatoes next spring and see what happens, but I have very little experience with canning - basically only with fig preserves. Here is the rye bread recipe I made that I think is very good with tomatoes: Rye Bread with Caraway and Fennel 1-1/2 pound loaf (approx.): 2 tbsp caraway seeds 1 tbsp fennel seeds 1-1/2 cups water 2 tbsp onion powder (can substitute 1/4 cup pureed onion) 1-1/8 cups dark rye flour 1-7/8 cups bread flour 2 tbsp semolina flour 2 tbsp VWG 2 tbsp brown sugar 1-1/2 tsp salt 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp IDY Grind caraway seeds and fennel seeds in a coffee grinder that is used only for spices. Add the seeds to the water (I use a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup) and microwave for one minute. Stir and microwave 20 more seconds, and then add the onion powder (or pureed onion if you are using that). If using pureed onion instead of onion powder, you can reduce the water by 2 tablespoons. Allow the ground seeds to sit in the warm water until the water has cooled to about 100 degrees. Meanwhile, add the flours, wheat gluten, sugar, and salt to the bread machine pan and stir gently with a plastic spatula. Add the oil to this mixture and stir slightly. Insert pan into the machine and lock in place. When the seeds have soaked for at least 15 minutes, add the seed/water mixture to the bread machine pan. Close the lid and add the yeast to the yeast dispenser. Set the machine for small loaf (1-1/2 pounds), medium crust, and regular loaf, or you can use the pizza setting if you want to shape the loaf yourself. Start the machine. When the bread is done, remove from pan and rub all sides with butter, and then allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack before storing it in a bag. Wait at least one hour before slicing. These directions are for the Panasonic bread machine that I have, and so you may have to adjust them if you have a different machine. The bread has a very intense flavor, and so you can cut back on the seeds/onion, but I like with a strong flavor. It is not as versatile as plain bread, but it makes great sandwiches. Grainlady gave me the suggestion to soak the seeds first, so that they will not cut the gluten strands, I think. Anyway, the loaf came out nice and light - not dense at all. Lars

thanks for the suggestions on photoshop. I did add the shutters in paint but we're still not decided if we need shutters for all or center or no windows. Enclosing pictures with shutters on all of them and shutters on center block. Also, we're thinking of matching the door color with the color of the shutter. Any opnions? As for adding picture to the post, I uploaded the picture to tinypic.com and pasted the html link.

Yeah there are many ways to ripen green tomatoes but even more recipes for using them as green. So are you looking for things that can be canned or frozen for long term storage or just ways to use them in cooking? With cooking recipes you can use them in in the same amounts in any recipe where you would normally use ripe tomatoes. Just gives a different taste to the dish. Also great in salads, on the grill, pizza, diced as an ingredient in meatloaf, ever had green marinara sauce on pasts? Green tomato enchilada sauce, green tomato salsa, mixed with hot peppers for hot sauce, even green tomato ketchup is quite popular. Pickled green tomatoes with onions, fermented green tomatoes, added to mixed vegetable pickles, Bread & Butter Green Tomato pickles, dill tomato pickles, green tomato chutney, green tomato mincemeat, etc. What to do with green-tomatoes discussions Only limited by your imagination. Dave