Goodbye 'maters

I did it.  I finally pulled up the tomato plants in the raised beds.  Even though there were teeny-tiny undeveloped tomatoes on them and more flowers!  I have such a hard time ripping out plants that are still producing, but let's face it, the fruits left on the plants wouldn't grow much more, the bigger ones wouldn't ripen and the flowers have almost no chance of being pollinated.

So not only do I have almost ten pounds of green pear tomatoes, but I have two raised beds that are 1/2 empty.  And I haven't decided what, if anything I'm going to plant.  It's much too late for most cool-weather crops, but I think I'll put in some more lettuce and spinach in these beds and put plastic covers over the rows since the framework is still up.  I could put garlic in there, but I really don't want to dedicate these beds to that. 

I'm hoping that we'll (meaning Paul) will put in another two raised beds right behind these so I can make it into my yearly Kitchen Garden.  Two, maybe three cherry tomato plants, one or two hot pepper plants and the rest with herbs.  I'm much more likely to use the fresh herbs if I can just make a few steps out the front door to cut some basil instead of going to the other side of the yard to the fenced-in garden. 

Lazy.  You bet'cha.  But honest.  I get points for that, right?

Oh, and does anyone know what to do with a bunch of green pear tomatoes?  Recipes like relish or something?  I'm at a loss.  Although I did read on a recent blog post (forgot where, of course) that you can put the green tomatoes in a paper bag & they will ripen.  So until I find a good green tomato relish recipe, I'll just stick 'em in a paper bag.