ripening green tomatoes « giantveggiegardener

Monday finished picking all the tomatoes and then the garden froze that night. Now I have a houseful of green and ripening tomatoes everywhere! Tomorrow I go to our Farmer’s Market and sell them. In fact I have 9 boxes which ain’t bad for end of October. Usually I sell out and there are hardly any tomato people there now. I’ll wait and see how the rest of the tomatoes develop-just take it week to week as to whether I go back or are finished. Meanwhile the garden is a mess since it froze. I started to clean it up but the plants are too heavy still with water so I’ll wait till they are lighter. I think I’ll hire some help with it.

green tomatoes need to be on single layer

Now is the time to finish picking those green tomatoes before it freezes tonight! I have been collecting boxes and paper bags to store them in for some time now. They will be everywhere in the house this year. Last year I put them in the studio and it wasn’t heated and I didn’t get any tasty ones. Tomatoes that are picked need temperatures at 51 degrees or higher to finish ripening-so that leaves OUT most garages unless they are heated. Put them on a single layer of possible, not stacked as in the first photo.

Tomatoes starting to ripen

Also be sure to cover them so they are not in direct sunlight and be sure to rotate them as they all ripen differently. MOST of your tomatoes that have start turning light green will ripen just fine and SOME of those dark green ones MAY ripen as well. Don’t bother with picking all the immature small ones (depending on size of mature tomatoes), they won’t ripen well.