If you have a garden like mine it is slowing down and I’m slowly cleaning up my garden for the year. I have many tomatoes still on the vine that are green. What do I do with those? Throw them away with the plant, eat green tomatoes or ripen them?
Did you know you can ripen green tomatoes?
Supplies Needed:
- Green Tomatoes
- Wide, shallow thick cardboard box
- Remove the green tomatoes from the vines before the frost.
- Wash under running water and thoroughly dry tomatoes.
- Discard any tomatoes that are damaged, spotted or soft. They will rot the good tomatoes.
- Use a wide thick cardboard box lined with 5 sheets of newspaper or paper towels so it will absorb the liquid from the rotting tomatoes. If the liquid touches other tomatoes they will rot as well.
- Either place each clean, dry tomato in the box 2 inches apart so they do not touch or wrap each green tomato individually in newspaper.
- Store the box in a cool, dry and dark place about 50-60 degrees F. The colder the temperature the slower the ripening. The more humidity the more rotting.
- Check the tomatoes a couple times a week. Tomatoes should ripen in 2-4 weeks depending on how ripe they were when you picked them off the vine.
- If you see any signs of rotting discard the tomato so the rot doesn’t spread to the other tomatoes.
- When a tomato is mostly red remove them from the box and place them in your kitchen to finish ripening.
Just a few tips:
- Placing a banana by the tomato box will help the tomatoes ripen faster because the banana gives of ethylene gas.
- Light is not necessary to ripen the tomatoes once it is no longer attached to the vine.
- Wrapping each tomato in newspaper works well but makes it harder to inspect.
