another poster has the same question -- I've done well with the newspaper thing; single layer, keep cool, start with the greenest/hardest and then you can unwrap the ripest first. A friend has dried with great success, but I've never had good luck. Do you like fried green tomatoes? Try fixing a huge batch, not quite done, and freeze single layer on paper towel. Then transfer to a baggie or container after they're frozen solid.

No real frost here yet.. I still have some young dill weed out back growing about a foot tall so far. It will be pulled in a few days I think, unless there is a true frost soon. My garlic grass was really abundent this year too. Near my compost area, there is a single tomato plant that now has 3 small green tomatoes on it. The seeds must have come from last years plants. They are not very big and I doubt if they would ripen. I only planted huge types of tomatoes last year, so this one is just barely hanging on due to the cool temps.

You can get some to ripen indoors, provided you keep an eye on them. I just place a 1-2 layers in a big paper bag and set it on the floor in the kitchen. Usually I get maybe 1/3 to 1/2 ripening for almost a month, then they start to really spoil.

I brought in nearly 8,000 green tomatoes two weeks ago. I just lay them in the black trays you put plant pots in. I had them stacked in every corner of my house (the warmer the area the better but I did put twenty trays in an unheated bedroom to stall the ripening a little.) I had 49 trays and I am down to 5 trays now. I have never had to wrap mine or anything, I also do not notice any loss in flavor. Here, you cannot pull the plant and hang them in a garage or barn because it gets too cold at night and the tomatoes freeze solid.

In Z4 its very hard to grow tomatoes to full term. I usually start the plants from seeds back in April in my Z6. They are usually about 2+ feet tall when they are ready to plant in the garden. I must assume that whatever tomato type you grow has a fast growing to maturity cycle. My cherry pepper plants were pulled up about 2 weeks ago. At the time, they had many very small green peppers. I tossed the plants into my compost pile and now notice that many of these tiny peppers have ripened to bright red color. Next time I grow them, I plan to have the whole plant sitting someplace where there is no frost.

Amazing, tonight they predict a first frost, so I guess its time to pull up my new dill weed plants that sprouted from dropped seeds of mammoth dill I had growing this past summer..

Here are many prior discussions about what to do with green tomatoes from this forum - recipes as well as tips for ripening them. You'll find lots of helpful info in them.

You might also want to check all the recent discussions over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here at GW as many have the same problem as you.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Tomato discussions...

tlouise NY:

I'm picking mine right before a frost and frying them for my husband. I can't stand fried green tomatoes but he loves them. I made some room in the freezer so will freeze the excess.

I don't bother to wrap mine in newspaper. I simply lay them out on a few layers on shelves in the basement so they don't touch. I then bring the ones starting to turn upstairs to the kitchen to further ripen. I tried the wrapped ones in the past but found it too much work to unwrap and rewrap every couple days to see if they were ripened yet...I lost many to rot that year. One year I got really lucky and ate the last of my tomatoes on Thanksgiving...but then I was able to cover the plants and postpone plucking the tomatoes until late into October. I sure was nice have some ripe tomatoes for the nachos we had for dinner tonight :-)

brokenbar, 8,000 tomatoes? this was not a typo? you are busy....do they normally ripen in z4? do you have a greenhouse? I really admire you northern gardeners.

Cabrita, yep, have a green house. I have nearly 150 plants for my sun-dried tomato business. In an average year, I get about 500-600 lbs that ripen on the vine. This year was anything but average with 27 degrees on June 11th and a hard frost on Labor Day. And 8000 green is not a typo (I am like anal so I counted them as I brought them in...)
I have been drying them in my dehydrator since I brought them all in. My husband made 36 jars each of Marinara sauce, salsa and salsa verde (using tomatillos and green tomatoes.) For his green salsa, he slices and cooks the green tomatoes and tomatillos for about a half hour and then runs them through the food mill to remove the seeds and most of the juice (skins don't slip on green tomatoes.) Because he does this, his salsa verde is really thick and nice. Yes...northern gardening can be a real challenge. I have nearly 200 orchids indoors that give me something to do all winter. We bought a house on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and in 5 more years, we are retiring there. I CAN'T WAIT to be able to grow things year round.

Hmm, I don't se any GW issues here...

My crew (of unwilling workers!) helped me pick green tomatoes/peppers Sunday night. . . everything was frozen the next morning. I will make a green tomato pickle relish (very popular at our baseball concession stand) out of everything except the tomatoes that look like they might ripen. Hopefully there will be enough peppers to also have some sliced for the freezer. My peppers didn't really set on until the last couple of weeks - figures!

We like the fried green tomatoes.

I slice them, dredge them in flour and put them on cookie sheets - layering with wax paper. When they are frozen solid, you can pop them off and put in bags. They are separate and you can take out as many as you want to cook each time.

I've been doing this for many years, and we enjoy them.

Sometimes when I am lazy, I just 'mushy' fry them like you would slow fried potatoes. I learned this from my Mother in Law. She had 10 children. She said there was so way she would have time to fry that many individual slices of green tomatoes. It look strange, but tastes great - at least we like it.

I also like the green tomato relish that we get at the catfish restaurants.

Time to make some green tomato relish?? See if you can get a recipe from one of the resturants?

I don't know if the restaurants would have the recipe. They probably just buy it from someone.

Probably there are recipes on line for this or some of the canning books. I did make some year before last when we were at our son's for the gardening season. I found it when we were moving some of our stuff home - had totally forgotten about it. Since we haven't tried it, I can't say if it is good or not, and of course, I don't have a clue where I got the recipe.

So I'd say check on line. If I had a tried and true, I'd be happy to share.

Oh yes, there are many recipes out there for green tomato relish. My mom would not make relish, but picililli and it was really flavorful with 1/8 wedges of tomatoes and some onions, and many spices. The recipe below is very basic and has very few spices. It seems to indicate its for home canning however.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green tomato relish

Here's my green tomato relish. It is worth the work!
4 cups onion
1 medium head cabbage
10 green tomatoes
12 green peppers
5 red peppers
1/2 cup salt
6 cups sugar
4 cups vinegar
2 cups water
Grind vegies together (I use a food processor). Stir in salt. Let mixture sit over night. Next day, rinse and drain mixture. Heat sugar, vinegar and water to a boil. Add vegies and simmer 3 minutes. Pour hot mixture into prepared canning jars, leave 1/2 inch head space and process 10 minutes in a hot water bath. I do not use exact amounts - this year I had no red peppers (they make it much prettier!). I think hot peppers would make a really good addition to this recipe. But I have a legion of fans who love this relish as it is. . . so. . . ! This relish is especially good on grilled burgers, hot dogs and sausages.

Here is a couple I use...

Fish House Green Tomato Relish

3-4 lbs rough chopped green tomato
2 cups rough chopped onion
2-3 chopped jap peppers
2 cups sugar
3 T salt
2 cups vinegar
1 tsp celery seed

Put tomatoes, onions and hot peppers in large pan. Mix remaining ingredients together. Pour over tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat immediately, put in hot, sterile jars, process pints 5 minutes in BWB Green Tomato Chow Chow

1-2 bags slaw mix (or fresh cabbage)
3-4 lbs breaker tomatoes, large dice
1 yellow bell pepper
1 small bottle Cholula Hot Sauce
2 cups water
4 cups vinegar
1 T pickling spice(use spice bag)
2 jalapenos
1 cups sugar
1 med onion

Boil slaw in heavily salted water for 20 minutes.
Drain and rinse slaw with hot water.
Add everything to pot but tomatoes and boil for 1 hour.
Add tomatoes and boil for 20-30 minutes until desired consistency. (I take a spoon full and let it cool to check consistency)
Process pints for 5 minutes BWB