<p>Okay. So I’ve got thousands. Red ones, and black ones, and purple ones, and yellow ones, and orange ones, and lemon-shaped ones, and cherry-sized ones, and two-toned ones from the Canary Islands.</p>
<p>Only thing is, they’re all green. No, I don’t want to make green tomato pies.</p>
<p>No rot. Yet. </p>
<p>What’s your favorite technique, if you’ve got one?</p>
<p>LOL, mini. I’m in the same boat, except I picked a couple of pounds of ripe ones courtesy of the recent heat spell. What works for me: line a wire shelf with newspaper, spread your green tomatoes in a monolayer on the newspaper (I usually add one or two ripe ones as “seed crystals”), and leave them in a dark place. Something will ripen, but it will not taste as vine ripened tomatoes.
[Ripening</a> Green Tomatoes - How to Ripen Green Tomatoes](<a href=“http://gardening.about.com/od/growingtips/qt/Green_Tomato.htm]Ripening”>How to Ripen Green Tomatoes)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>OK…two choices that I have done successfully. To be done when frost is going to happen.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>take out the WHOLE plant with the tomatoes on it (yes some will likely fall off…see #2). Hang the plant by the roots (so the tops are hanging down) inside a cool place from the rafters…maybe an unfinished unheated basement room? The tomatoes will continue to ripen. Put newspaper or something on the floor below to catch falls.</p></li>
<li><p>For the larger tomatoes…wrap them in newspaper individually and put in a box. Yes you will need to check these almost every day but they will ripen.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Sit them on the kitchen counter next to a window. They ripen quickly when the sun hits them and they get warm in the window.</p>
<p>Put them in a container with a lid on it. I use a shoe box. They like a dark, cool (not in the fridge) environment. You can hasten the process by putting an unpeeled banana in the box. No joke.</p>
<p>I am picturing that tomato plant hanging upside down - for real?!</p>
<p>For real…I lived in northern New Hampshire where the growing season was NOT long enough for ripened tomatoes. I did this for years…and I had a bunch of tomatoe plants hanging. Sometimes I had fresh tomatoes until November.</p>
<p>I use a brown paper bag–put tomatoes in there and store them in a cool area. I use my garage. Just canned 9 quarts of tomatoes over the weekend. Made tomato sauce too.</p>
<p>The only reason I gave up on the hanging method of ripening is because we had hordes of spiders descending on our garage every October. Spider-web coated tomatoes. Yuck. I might give it a shot again - I have not seen too many spiders his year. DH replaced our lights wih LED lightbulbs that have somewhat bluish spectrum, and that ligh does not attract as many moths and bugs.</p>
<p>So, interesting. Some folks seem to think the cool, dark place is the way to go. Some the warm, light one. Anyone ever try a scientific experiment to see which is better (better ripening, better tasting?)</p>
<p>Here’s my opinion: whenever you pick the tomato, that’s all the flavor you get. They may turn red, but they don’t actually get any more flavor. So what I do is this: I cut the roots of the plant (with a spade) and I turn off the water. That causes the fruit to ripen way faster on the plant. I’m the only one in the neighborhood who got ripe tomatoes this year, and I even ripened some of my brandywines that way. So if I were you, I’d pick some of the green ones (and make green tomato pickle), I’d pick some of the others and ripen them (wrapped in newspaper has worked best for me), and I’d abuse the plant (cut the roots and stop the water, maybe even by putting a garbage bag over it to make it warmer) to try to ripen the rest.</p>
<p>OP, when I had to harvest a huge amount of green ones in early November one year, I put them in a large brown paper bag with a ripe apple or two. I checked the bag every 2 or 3 days and took out any ones that had even a blush of orange. Those went onto a plate in a sunny window and ripened up quite well in a few more days.</p>
<p>It worked for all the tomatoes although some of them took their time. These were small tomatoes which last longer anyway. “Juliet”, I believe.</p>
<p>I’m with the sit them in a sunny window camp. </p>
<p>If it doesn’t work, there’s always fried green tomatoes:)</p>
<p>Well, so far no rot. So I only have a few indoors. In a bag. with an apple.</p>
<p>The problem with sunny windowsill ripening method is… there is NO sunny windows in our neck of the woods in October. :D</p>
<p>Wishing you well. Mine quit setting fruit when the night temps went over 80…long about May first. Since things got too hot too soon we only got fruit from the Sweet 100 bush. We are on drought water restrictions so I’m not planting my usual fall crop. Can we please share weather this next year?</p>
<p>“The problem with sunny windowsill ripening method is… there is NO sunny windows in our neck of the woods in October.”</p>
<p>Think my SAD lamp would work? Anyone ever try?</p>
<p>(Meanwhile, we’ve got WAY more beans than we could ever eat - I’m giving away bags to visitors, and the dog has taken to pulling them off the bushes, which is fine with me.)</p>
<p>What you need is ethylene gas. Farmers use it to ripen fruit. A natural source is bananas, so you want to get a large jar (or plastic bag) and a greenish or pretty fresh banana. You seal the banana and the tomatoes up in the bag so that the ethylene emitted from the banana will ripen the tomato. If your banana begins to rot before your tomato is ripe you need a new banana, rotting bananas give off very little ethylene.</p>
<p>Its cool I actually did this last year when I was volunteering with some kids and filled one jar with just a tomato and one with a green banana and a tomato, the one with the banana ripened in four days, the other never did… the kids loved it, and it helped me to get them to understand the concept of gases.</p>
<p>So I got tomatoes in one bag with an apple. And some in one bag with a banana. And some will go to the windowsill. And some into boxes in the dark. And if I can figure out where, I’ll hang some upside down, and put some under a SAD light.</p>
<p>We’ll see…</p>
<p>Mini, thank you for your dedication to science. Please let us know the results.</p>