Save Those Late Tomatoes: How to Ripen Green Tomatoes

Photo courtesy of skyehopper at Flickr.com.

Tomatoes are almost exclusively warm weather fruits; even a light frost will ruin them. So what do you do if your last tomatoes aren’t quite ripe and a cold night’s been forecast? Well, you could knit little tomato cozies for each unripe fruit, but even Martha Stewart probably couldn’t accomplish that in an afternoon. Here’s a better way: carefully pull up the tomato plants, roots and all, and then hang them upside down in a dry, warm location indoors. This will give the tomatoes enough time to ripen right on the vine. It’s not the best solution, but at least you don’t have to worry about wasting veggies. And remember: there’s always fried green tomatoes, if you want to go a more traditional route.