When a client mentioned that she still has a ton of green tomatoes on her plants, but needs to pull them to make room for fall crops, it occurred to me that not everyone knows the old newspaper trick for ripening tomatoes. So here it is:

Ripening Green Tomatoes

1. Take a sheet from any black and white printed newspaper section that you don’t read.
2. Place a single tomato (or a small group) on the newspaper.

   

3. Wrap the tomato (or group of tomatoes) in the newspaper.
4. Place the bundle on the counter and wait.

It’s that easy! Check every few days to see if any tomatoes have ripened. After a week or so, your green tomatoes will be ripe!

Some say it is best to wrap tomatoes individually, but we experimented with wrapping several together and it worked fine. Store your wrapped tomatoes in a crate over winter in a basement, if you are lucky enough to have one. Or use those tomatoes up as they ripen.

If you’d rather eat your tomatoes green, we have a favorite way to prepare Fried Green Tomatoes. Either way, enjoy your tomatoes while you can!