How Do I Ripen Un-Ripe Tomatoes In The House?

[redhen]

Its getting cold here in mass.. And so i had to pick my un-ripe beefsteak tomatoes before they froze....
How can i get them to ripen in the house? I know to put them in a window... but i have a ton of them.. no way i can do that with them all.
Any ideas? They're just going to be for my animals... so it dosent have to be anything special... i just dont want to feed them so many green tomatoes...i'm afraid they'll get sick or something...
Thanks for any tips.

 

[farmerlor]

Actually, you shouldn't put them in the window. They'll do much better if you put them in a dim room on a table so they're not touching anything or each other and let them ripen that way. We've had to do the same thing last two years because it got cooler much quicker than it should have.

 

[redhen]

Great thanks!!!

 

[michickenwrangler]

Big paper bag, not touching one another on the inside

 

[OregonChickenGal]

Tomatoes ripen from the inside out, so don't put them in a window. If you can, put them in a single layer in a dark area and cover with a sheet of newspaper. Check on them now and then. I'm in the same boat, I live in Central Oregon, and we have already had 26 degrees a couple of days ago.

 

[redhen]

Good ideas about the paper bag or newspaper.. thanks!
No wonder they never ripened that great in the window..

See.. learn something new on BYC everyday...

 

[bargain]

Get clean boxes - like print paper comes in wrap each tomato heavily in newspaper being sure that they don't touch and put in cool closet or cool room, they will gradually ripen over time. Check them frequently to see how they are doing! We have also hung plants roots up in a garage to allow ripening. That also works if your garage isn't freezing.

Great luck!

(In the south, we would just friend those green tomatoes or make green tomato salsa!

 

[redhen]

I know! I doooo like fried green tomatoes....
maybe the animals wont get them all...

 

[gritsar]

The heck with ripening them. Fried green tomatoes or green tomato parmagiana.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Somebody say FRIED GREEN MATERS?