96 Green Tomatoes, How do you ripen green tomatoes?

[Gary350]

Weather man says, Hard Freeze tonight. 1 TV station says 28 degrees, the other TV station says 29 degrees tonight. It has not even frosted here yet but I'm taking no chances I harvested all the tomatoes. I was always told to lay the tomatoes out of news papers and they will get ripe. What usually happens in about 2 weeks 1 by 1 tomatoes start to rot and 1 by 1 I throw them away. I have tried to ripen them on the window seal, on the counter top, in the dark pantry, they still rot. Someone once told me to wrap each tomato in news paper put them all in a box keep them in the dark pantry, about 3 weeks later all the tomatoes were rotted. Is there a sure fire way to make green tomatoes get ripe?

[webmaster]

Put them in a brown paper bag. That's what worked for me.

A frost was coming a couple weeks ago so we pulled them off the vine and they ripened just fine.

[Taiji]

I was wondering about that too. It frosted heavily 2 nights ago, but I still had a number of good green tomatoes down inside the bushes. Mine always seem to rot too. Can you pile them up in one paper bag, or is it best to maybe keep them to just one layer?

[Francis Barnswallow]

I usually just put them on a plate and left it on my kitchen counter to ripen. Don't stack the unripened tomatoes on top of each other because the ones on the bottom often rotted.

[Francis Barnswallow]

I did that this summer and was mostly successful.

[applestar]

I know some people say not to wash them, but for me one important factor is to make sure fungal disease spores are not on them since late season plants are going down from septoria and sometimes blight.

I rinse them in two buckets of tap water, then drain and dry them well on a rack -- I've been using my trusty bread-display tray for this purpose, outside on the sunny patio table. I have read that some people advise mild bleach-washing them, though that wouldn't be my choice.

I take care never to get juice from tomatoes I've cut on tomatoes that are still ripening because then they seem to spoil faster.

They are sorted into color break/blushed fruits, which are almost certain to ripen without incident and pre-color break but not immature green fruits. I don't save immature green ones unless I intend to make something with them, but most so-called "green tomato" recipes are actually better made with ones that have started to color break at least.

Ones that are from severely diseased/suspect plants and fruits are segregated.

For me the key is to keep them in good air circulation -- for large numbers, I use web trays lined with paper towel or craft paper which I elevate on cooling racks and raised upper broiler pans, and lay them in a single layer and not touching each other as much as possible. I like to supply air movement with oscillating fan or personal fan (you do have at least one that is dedicated for using on seedlings and drying onions and garlic, right?) A table in front of a window and busy counter will have naturally generated thermal and human movement generated air currents.

Placement has not mattered much except to be where convenient for at least twice daily inspection. But I always put down something under the raised web trays just in case I miss spoilage and end up with stinky drips. But it's not a total disaster because the spoiling ones will encourage surrounding ones to ripen. I sometimes scatter mostly ripe tomatoes or apples and bananas on top of the green ones -- but you have to watch them like a hawk. Covering the greenest ones with a tea towel seem to help a little, too, and it would keep the dust off of them, but I won't do that if I find myself begrudging taking the time to lift the towel and peek.

[kayjay]

Is your home humid? I wonder if that's a factor. My immature frost-rescue tomatoes ripened pretty well in paper bags, minus maybe two rotten ones... but the climate got noticeably drier after around that time. Maybe run a dehumidifier?

Temperature might be a factor, too. We have no central AC or heating. We use an infrared space heater set at 60F/15C once it gets that cold. So by the time I got those tomatoes in, the kitchen was a little chilly. By 'pantry', do you mean an area of the house that's cool, or just a cupboard in the kitchen? Some peoples' kitchens can get really warm, especially at meal times when you're running the oven, the stovetop, etc.

I'm going to see my dad today - I remember him preserving laundry baskets full of tomatoes by wrapping them in newspaper. At the time, I was a picky teenager and basically didn't eat vegetables, so I don't remember what his results were. I'll have to ask him today. I'm pretty sure he kept them in the cold storage at the house - an unfinished/unheated part of the basement that was indeed pretty cold by winter.

(ETA) The icky commercial tomatoes we have at work - picked green and ripened with ethylene gas - states that they shouldn't be refrigerated but stored at around 55F, FWIW.

[cdog222]

One sure fire way to keep them from rotting - fried green tomatoes! That's how I take care of my green 'maters at the end of the season

[Gary350]

One sure fire way to keep them from rotting - fried green tomatoes! That's how I take care of my green 'maters at the end of the season

1 tomato turned slightly red over night it should be ready to eat soon.

I just finished making Green Tomato Bread and Butter Pickles they will be ready to eat for Christmas dinner. Alice is going to make Green Tomato relish. Tonight we are having fried Green Tomatoes for dinner. Tomorrow I will make green tomato salsa with garden Jalapeno peppers . Grilled green tomato slices cooked crispy brown on both sides r good on pizza.

http://vegetarian-recipes.wonderhowto.c ... en-407911/

[lakngulf]

I am right there with you, Gary. Picked these this morning in anticipation of freeze tonight. Picked four baskets at my Mom's as well.

[Allyn]

I know you have other plans and folks have given you good advice, but all I see are oodles and oodles of fried green tomatoes and green tomato pies. Yum!

[jal_ut]

Next year plant a variety that ripens earlier?

Green tomatoes? Never found a use for them.

Perhaps you can set some cardboard on the counter and lay them in a single layer and see if they will ripen?

[Gary350]

Next year plant a variety that ripens earlier?

Green tomatoes? Never found a use for them.

Perhaps you can set some cardboard on the counter and lay them in a single layer and see if they will ripen?

I planted 6 different varieties of tomatoes this year, cherry tomatoes were ripe 1st, Big Beef were ripe 2nd, Beef Master were ripe 3rd, Early girl were ripe 2 weeks after Beef Master. I think that has to do with how old the plants are when I buy them in plant trays.

I sometimes plant tomatoes from seeds directly in the garden they do very well if I plant 6 to 10 seeds per spot sometimes 1 or 2 come up and sometimes all 10 come up. 1 plant will take over so I pull up all the smaller plants.

We made fried green tomatoes for dinner in the deep fryer they were terrible. LOL. Later I remember growing up grandmother cooked fried green tomatoes in a cast iron skillet low heat cook very slow to allow acid time to cook away until both sides were crispy golden brown so we tried again and they were much better. Don't slice them very think, dip them in buttermilk, cover with flour and salt 30 minutes, fry in a cast iron skillet.

Cook green tomato relish 2 hours to boil off the acid.

I have all the green tomatoes in a very large bowl with a lid to hold in the gas that tomatoes give off they are getting ripe very quick we sliced and diced some for tacos for dinner they taste ripe and very good.

[Allyn]

We made fried green tomatoes for dinner in the deep fryer they were terrible. LOL. Later I remember growing up grandmother cooked fried green tomatoes in a cast iron skillet low heat cook very slow to allow acid time to cook away until both sides were crispy golden brown so we tried again and they were much better. Don't slice them very think, dip them in buttermilk, cover with flour and salt 30 minutes, fry in a cast iron skillet....

Oh no! Not a deep fryer. The cast iron skillet is the way to go. My husband likes them sliced thin and breaded with coarse corn meal. I like them sliced thick and breaded with corn flour. This is how I make them:

Slice them and put them in a colander. Salt them good and let them sit for 5 minutes, then rinse them and pat them with paper towels to dry them. I find kosher salts works better than table salt, but table salt is fine if that's what you have. Mix a cup of buttermilk (old-fashioned full-fat buttermilk is best, but if all you have is the cultured buttermilk, that'll work) and an egg for the wash. Combine 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of corn flour (I use Masa Harna or use corn meal) ½ tsp. garlic powder, ½ tsp. onion powder, ½ tsp. of baking powder, a generous pinch of salt, and freshly ground black pepper for the dredge. For the oil, I use 2 parts canola oil and one part butter. Wash, dredge, fry.

For green tomato pie, substitute thinly sliced green tomatoes for the apples in an apple pie recipe. Add a little orange zest and throw off a handful of raisins into the filling.

[jal_ut]

I have used 5 mil poly sheathing to cover the plants in the garden and let them ripen in the garden

[lakngulf]

As I posted above, I picked several green tomatoes before what I thought was our first frost. After that my wife and I were on a trip to Colorado for 10 days. While gone the temps at home got low so I just knew the tomato plants were toast. Temps in the teens in Colorado emphasized that.

Imagine how shocked I was when I returned to find these plants still going.

[applestar]

Nice! They probably don't get truly freezing temperatures on the pier as long as the lake is not frozen. I imagine along the shoreline, there must be some composting heat generated by the muck as well? (hmm... that word doesn't work right, but I hope you know what I mean -- I don't want to imply your lakeshore is "mucky")

[lakngulf]

Nice! They probably don't get truly freezing temperatures on the pier as long as the lake is not frozen. I imagine along the shoreline, there must be some composting heat generated by the muck as well? (hmm... that word doesn't work right, but I hope you know what I mean -- I don't want to imply your lakeshore is "mucky")

Muck works. Not sure what keeps the temps up but glad to still have some maters growing on Dec 3rd.

Actually ours is a reservoir lake for flood control and water management, so Alabama Power lowers the water 10 ft each year. That allows air and sunshine to our shoreline, and keeps it fairly clean, compared to fish weed, etc that thrives in lakes that stay full year round.