- Hey, it's that end of season.

You have all these green tomatoes and you're so sad.

Well, here's your little secret sauce.

You can still eat those tomatoes, and they'll turn ripe if you do a few things.

I made my kids pick the green tomatoes this year.

We'll see how they did.

They kind of just chucked everything in here.

But there's certain qualities that you want in a good green tomato, and you let it ripen down in your basement or in a nice, cool spot.

And sometimes I've had tomatoes all the way through January that continue to ripen.

Are they gonna taste as good as they would if they were on the vine?

No, unfortunately, they're not gonna be that sun-ripened tomato, but, in my opinion, they taste better than what you're gonna get at the store.

So it's up to you.

But if you have a lot of green tomatoes, this is something you can do to keep them and still use them.

All right, looking at some green tomatoes.

Again, my kids picked these tomatoes.

If it is ripped, if it is broken, if it has blossom end rot, if it has any imperfections, toss it.

It's not worth keeping.

But if you have a beautiful green tomato, you can put it in a cardboard box, is my ideal.

I like to use boxes that are half open, that can give some good airflow and just put it face down.

I will stack tons of tomatoes.

You do need to have space in between, 'cause they can rot, and they will start ripening on their own.

If you want them to wait longer and you wanna go through December, put them in a cooler spot.

If you need tomatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, then make sure that you put them in a warmer spot, probably about 70 degrees.

If you are in need of comfort tomato soup tomorrow, then get yourself a banana and put it next to some tomatoes and they will ripen right quick.

So these are a few ways that you can extend or shorten the ripening of your tomatoes.

When I have tomatoes that are already almost on the verge, I keep them separate from the green tomatoes that I want, that are gonna last a little longer.

So I kind of have my categories.

I look for imperfections, toss out the bad ones, and I keep the ones that are lightening up in a separate bin than the ones that are super hard and green that I wanna save for December.

So if you're like, "I don't have room to store green tomatoes.

What am I gonna do with these now?"

There's actually ways that you can cook and use green tomatoes.

Fried green tomatoes are a specialty.

They're delicious.

Another way is I love using green tomatoes and slicing them up and using them in relish that I will make with cabbage.

Actually calls for a ton of green tomatoes.

So if you are wanting to get rid of green tomatoes, look for a green tomato relish recipe.

And I promise you won't be disappointed when you smear it all over your brats.

So, green tomatoes that you're wanting to last for a long time, make sure you have a few things.

A dark location that's nice and cool that has some good airflow.

You don't want it dry.

If it's too dry, they're gonna rot or they're gonna get this leathery skin that's kind of gross.

So if it's a little too dry, I highly recommend getting some wax paper and just putting it covering it on the top.

(gentle music)