Tomatoes

Last weeks freeze obviously killed my tomato plants. I picked about 100 nice size green ones today. I brought them all inside to ripen. Am I wasting my time or will they turn out ok? My plan is to stew them all and then freeze them.

Thanks

They may be ok. Try putting them in a cool dark place for a few days and see if they stay firm. If they do then they will turn red in a while. Let us know what happens. I have a great salsa recipe if you want.
B

I picked about 100 green ones 2 weeks ago when I cleaned the garden. They have been ripening just fine in the house laid out in our sunroom on some big container lids. You have nothing to worry about, they’ll ripen shortly.

I don’t garden anymore, but, when I did I would pull the tomato plants out of the ground before they froze off. Hang them in the basement by the root. Then they will ripen over time, sometimes having fresh firm tomatoes till Dec. 1st Put a tarp under them, as the leaves will wither and fall off and make a mess.

I picked mine too and put them in a sunny window, they will ripen there.

I think if you put them in a closed paper bag it will help.

Thanks guys. Pickeral Boy. Please post your recipe.

I have been picking my green tomatoes for years. I wrap each one in a paper towel and put them in a tray. I then put then in the basement in a dark cool area and I have great tasting tomatos through December. For the cherry tomatos I use an egg carton, but make sure it a cardboard carton.

Boris, you have to bring a sample to the Sturgeon Excursion/07! And a little Sleeman’s I might add!

Take a dozen green ones and put them in a brown grocery bag with a banana that is just starting to turn brown, they will ripen very fast.

If you want you green ones to ripen, just give them air and space. If you stack them on top of each other or are pressing against each other, they will break down before they totally ripen.

Here comes the explanation from the resident chemist:

Ethylene

Ethylene is a small molecule plant hormone that, among other things, controls fruit ripening. Bananas that are going brown, like other fruits that are ripe, becoming ripe, or over-ripe, produce ethylene. Putting a ripening banana in a bag with the green tomatoes will keep the ethylene in the bag long enough for it to be taken up by the unripened fruit. When the tomatoes take in the ethylene, it will stimualte biochemical pathways to ripen the fruit. This is also the reason that we put hard peaches or pears in a brown sack…the ethylene produced by these fruit as they begin to ripen will stimulate all of the fruit in the bag to go through the ripening process much more papidly than they would if they were sitting on a shelf.

Dont overlook things you can make with green tomatoes. Green salsa and fried green tomatoes are fantastic.

I am sitting here looking at a card table with about 100 green and slightly ripened tomatos on it. As they ripen, I blanch them and take the skins off, put them in the freezer, and make my v-8 juice with them when all have ripened. I make juice from these instead of canning chunks because freezing tends to make them mushier(?).

Proof positive that you can learn more here on IDA by accident than most people can by trying.

Soucheray would love IDA.

Chris, I think I was an accident. Does that make me a good IDA’er?

We take the good with the bad!
Good to see you and BOP last weekend. Shoot me a PM with your results if you would…

Added them on your fishing report.

Saw that, but I wanted the real story! Guess I will have to run into BOP again for the real story!

Yeah, she probably outfished me again.