For red cherries: (assuming you don't just want to eat them - a quart wouldn't last two days in my house!) I would roast/dry them in the toaster oven. (Cut in half put on cookie sheet cut side up and roast them at very low heat until dry. Stored in cool dry place, or in fridge, if you must. These are roasted (not) sun-dried tomatoes, useful in myriad ways.

For the green ones, I would microwave them down into a jam-ish consistency (with whatever flavour add-ins you like) (strain or puree or not, as you think best) and make them into a jar of a refrigerated condiment to be used like ketchup on whatever seems tasty.

HTH

L

I have the last of my tomatoes roasting right now! Yum.

You could also just freeze your last few ripe tomatoes, and then when you do have a working oven again, make your jam, or just use them in a sauce.

I like L's idea for the green tomatoes.

Just toss them in a freezer bag until you have working stove.

they'll keep

Thanks all. I've never frozen them, so didn't know how they would do. I may roast some, though, great idea!

Green tomato pickle, now that is a great idea Liriodendron! I think one of my old cookbooks should have something like that.

Great ideas - I just pulled a peck out of the garden as the weather is mentioning the S*** word. Most are still green but should ripen in time.

It was icy this morning and I had to cut my Boston training run short by a mile for safety.

It is supposed to snow/rain mix tonight, with temp down to 32. I didn't have time to get all the green ones today (probably another half quart), so I suppose those will be unusable tomorrow. I didn't expect such cold this early.

PS these last fruits are all off of ONE massive plant!

It is supposed to snow/rain mix tonight, with temp down to 32. I didn't have time to get all the green ones today (probably another half quart), so I suppose those will be unusable tomorrow. I didn't expect such cold this early.

PS these last fruits are all off of ONE massive plant!

There's talk of the sn** word here too. I'm hoping that our apples that are still on the tree are going to be okay. They've been late in ripening this year. The deer decided that they loved my tomatoes this year and they demolished all the plants overnight a few months back...so no tomatoes to can this year. :(

There's talk of the sn** word here too. I'm hoping that our apples that are still on the tree are going to be okay. They've been late in ripening this year. The deer decided that they loved my tomatoes this year and they demolished all the plants overnight a few months back...so no tomatoes to can this year. :(

Deer have nibbled at mine, but mostly just the tips of the growing stems. Nothing stopped this monster cherry tomato! But, my dwarf apples did suffer from them, struggling mightily to branch out and constantly nibbled back.. Also the strawberries, never thought that deer would love strawberries almost as much as hosta.

Raee - you're lucky that they only nibbled at yours. Mine mowed off all the branches of the plant that had blossoms. To add insult to injury, they decided that the plants weren't to their liking and left the shrapnel there for me to clean up. Grrr. I had ONE tomato that escaped the deer assault and was growing nicely, almost ripe...and a chipmunk feasted on it! All that work for nothing.

Our apple trees are mature (my guess is that they are 40-ish years old or more!), so the deer get the bottom apples and leaves on the trees...we get the top ones.

Oh, yeah, strawberries...those are delicacies for deer. The only way I get to eat any of those are if I grow them on our back porch. I'm probably about the only person in the world who grows "wild strawberries" in a container on the porch. haha

Next year I'm hoping to put in raised beds with very high fencing around it and then hot pepper plants all around the perimeter. Maybe I'll actually get to eat some of the things that I've grown next year!

No snow but temps did go down to 32 yesterday and similar this morning. Glad I plucked the tomatoes. Tonight, I plan to make veggie chili using the ripe tomatoes for a chili contest.
I have to defend my crown. I won last year's contest with a meat version.
It is only a work contest but it was my first cooking contest.
I still have one habenero pepper plant on my deck. I hope it survived as I plan to trim it back and bring indoors

We had deer for the first time this year and they pruned a number of tomato plants down to 3 feet tall. One recovered nicely but some didn't. They left the caged plants alone. Deer in the city- crazy!

Chili - yum! Good luck. My favorite is chicken chili. I need a good recipe for that.

No garden for me. I think I have the main thoroughfare for the deer (and rabbits, and woodchuck, and fox - I'm waiting for Mufasa and Simba!) in my neighborhood. The more I spray or try to deter them the more they eat. They probably think it's a game and I'm providing them untold amusement!

When I lived in San Diego, I would make Cincinnati-style chili for potlucks -- always very popular! I would bring cornbread to have with it instead of the traditional spaghetti, though.

I've been in love with pumpkin chili lately. You can't really taste the pumpkin, but it adds a richness and smoothness to the stew, plus a real nutritional bonus.

My apples are dwarfs so they will never be out of the reach of the hoofed vermin. We are in a close-in suburb of Columbus, but near the river and have a creek ravine which is well-wooded just 2 blocks away. They roam the neighborhood every night, and sometimes in broad daylight (and show no fear!!) The deer have a route that they follow to access yards from the front, so the gate that I installed seems to be deterring them for now. I am sure it is just a matter of time before they figure out that they can get into the yard by jumping the side fences from the neighbors.

Just this summer we have been seeing foxes. Have always had trouble with raccoons and rabbits.

It is still freezing rain here; it did snow but stayed above 32F so maybe I can salvage the rest of the green tomatoes.