Ideally, the best way to ripen tomatoes is always naturally on the vine. This is not always possible if they are under threat from frost as often happens.
There are many ways to encourage ripening. Here are my recommended three methods to ripen those green tomatoes:-
Pick and store method.
Bring the unripe green tomatoes into your house. Put them one layer deep in a cardboard box,(or a paper bag) with a layer of newspaper between the tomatoes. Inspect your crop regularly, when they start to colour remove the paper and store at room temperature, but not in direct sunlight. I never put my tomatoes on the windowsill to ripen as they can be scalded by the sun, or they are softened without ripening. Tomatoes ripen from the bottom up and from the inside out, not mention all those good vitamins A and C being stripped from the tomatoes as they are scaled by the sun.
Hanging upside down method.
You can dig up the vines or take them indoors if in a pot. Strip the leaves off the vines and hang from a height. This can be done in a semi heated garage or greenhouse, to ripen tomatoes (kind of)naturally on the vine. It replicates the tomatoes being left on the vine as much as possible.
Quick Ripen with fruit method.
This is by far the fastest method I have found to ripen my tomatoes. If you put your green tomatoes in a paper bag with an apple they will ripen quicker. The Ethylene gas given off by fruit will help to ripen the tomatoes quickly especially in an enclosed space such as a paper bag.
The warmer the area you keep the tomatoes in the quicker they will ripen. You can stagger ripening if you keep some in a warmer place than others. You can therefore have a longer more constant supply of tomatoes if timed correctly.
Tomatoes that are whitish, yellowish or are in the early stages of pink to red, are the ones that will ripen the first. Bright green ones are really slow to ripen and some may not get there at all!
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