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Homegrown tomatoes are a real treat, so we want to harvest as many of them as we can before the end of the season.
Just because some of our tomatoes still may be green however, doesn't mean there aren't a few things we can't do to help the ripening process.
Here are a couple of tricks you can do to successfully ripen your green tomatoes.
1. Ripen tomatoes ON the plant
Now this technique should only be used at the very end of the plant's life because this will shock the plant into forcing all its final energy into ripening its tomatoes.
1. Take a kitchen knife and cut a semi-circle around the plant, 2 inches (5.1 cm) from the stem, and about 8 inches (20 cm) deep
2. Water and care for the plant as usual and harvest as many ripened tomatoes as you can before the plant dies
If after this trick you still have green tomatoes, no worries, you can still ripen them, but off the plant, here's how:
2. Ripen tomatoes OFF the plant
Tomatoes ripen from the bottom up and the inside out, so don't put tomatoes on a windowsill to ripen because they will only turn red, but not ripe. They will stay green inside.
Instead do this:
1. Place your unripened tomatoes on a tray, and then put them in a dark, warm spot
2. Cover them with a single sheet of newspaper
3. These are the conditions tomatoes need to continue the ripening process, which is internal. The light, which was needed for "growth" isn't needed anymore
4. Eat when ready
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