Of course, ripening is ideally not the kind of thing that you have to do to your fruits, but sometimes needs must! I was a little on the late side planting out my  tomatoes this year, which is a grave error since if the plants don’t get big enough before the heat sets in they really don’t bear much fruit in the warmest part of the summer and I end up with loads of green tomatoes at the end of the season. Last year, I am fairly certain that I harvested more green tomatoes than red! I have resolved firmly that I will start extra early next year.

Still, there is hope for the underripe tomato. I read this article on Ways to Garden and was encouraged enough by it to pick a big bowl of underripe tomatoes and try to ripen them in a paper bag. They looked like this going in:

And like this coming out:

Quite a difference, as you can see! They taste pretty good, too. I feel heartened that there is still hope for my greenish-reds.