ripening picked tomatoes

[Sniper-T]

I picked up a mountain of tomatoes from my UIL a couple weeks ago, unfortunately, he had just picked the vines clean due to the daily frost. Most were barely starting to ripen.

After a bit of research I filled about 1/2 a paper shopping bag with tomatoes, added in a semi-green banana, and closed it up tight. in 10 days EVERY tomato in the bags were perfectly ripened. A couple that I put on the window sill were... meh! and some that stayed in the plastic bags (with or without the banana, were about 1/2 ripened.

[4suchatimeasthis]

Awesome!

Now, can someone please find a way to slow the ripening process? My Mom jokes that this is the only time of year that people up in their neighborhood lock their car doors - so that nobody leaves squash and tomatoes in your car. Everyone is about squash and tomatoed right out!

[Sniper-T]

Between hunting and prepping the house/yard for fall, I don't have time for canning right now. I bag all my ripe tomatoes, and freeze them whole. When I have some time in the winter I'll do up a few batches. Plus, being frozen, they peel stupid easy.

[bacpacker]

We have in past years picked our plants clean in advance of a frost. We wrapped each tomato in a sheet of newspaper and placed them in a box in the basement. All the fully green ones together, any partially ripened ones together. The green ones started turning in about a month. The others were all done by then.

[ladyhk13]

I have also heard that if you pull up the whole plant and hang it upside down in a basement they will ripen slowly up until Christmas.

[TroubleShooter]

My understanding is , heat determines speed of ripening.......Cool = slow, Hot=fast

[LUNCHBOX]

I have done the same as Sniper in the past. They last for a good while but once they thall they are throw in some chili soft.