Tomato Harvest Tips: How to Ripen, Rescue, and Use Your Tomato Bounty

Rescuing Imperfect Tomatoes

Tomatoes do not need to be those perfect, round (and often tasteless) specimens you find in the grocery store. Don’t throw a tomato because it’s “wrinkly” or a weird shape.

Don’t throw away cracked tomatoes, either! If you’ve had a lot of rain and your tomatoes have cracks or blight or blossom-end rot, it’s perfectly fine to cut around the cracks and eat in salads, sandwiches, salsas, and sauces. (However, do not use these tomatoes for canning!)

Taste it! If the tomato doesn’t taste good (sometimes the case with blight), that’s another issue; just toss it in the compost. But rest assured that it won’t harm or kill you. Also, if any pests or larvae are inside the fruit when you cut it, then discard that tomato.

When to Pick Tomatoes

We like to keep our tomatoes on the vine as long as possible. However, don’t let those tomatoes get too soft! Pick them, and don’t waste your bounty. A tomato that’s ready to eat will feel slightly tender to the touch. Give it a tug. If a tomato doesn’t want to separate from the stem, leave it a little longer. 

Encourage Faster Ripening

Tomatoes will keep ripening on the vine until a freeze. To accelerate ripening on the vine, reduce watering, pick off extra blossoms, harvest smaller fruit, and shift the roots a bit to encourage tomatoes to ripen.

If you pick green tomatoes, you can help them ripen more quickly artificially. Place them in a paper bag, wrap them in newspaper, and set them on a rack in the garage or basement. 

If you get a local warning for an overnight freeze, pick your green tomatoes and bring them in.

Ripening Tomatoes Indoors

Tomatoes are one of the edibles that continue to ripen off the vine. If you want to pick a little early because you’re afraid of tomatoes getting overripe or eaten by pests or cracking, then you can pick the tomatoes as soon as they have more red than green. To ripen tomatoes, simply place them on a countertop at room temperature. Yes, you can ripen them even faster in a brown bag with a banana, but it doesn’t take more than a few days for them to ripen naturally. 

Roasting Tomatoes

After a very wet summer, the ripening cherry tomatoes greedily sucked up all the water and started to split. We couldn’t eat them all at once and did not want a single one to go to waste. Since the weather has cooled here in New Hampshire, it is much easier to have the oven on now rather than on a hot summer day, so we decided roasting was the way to go.

Roasting tomatoes is very quick and easy, and is a great way to use up those that have imperfections or won’t keep for much longer. Here’s how we did it.

• Brush rimmed cookie sheets with olive oil. If you prefer not to use oil, line the pans with parchment paper to keep the cooked tomatoes from sticking.
• Slice cherry tomatoes in half. I cut them along the lines where they had already started to split. If you have large tomatoes, you can roast them too. Just cut into rings about 1/2 inch thick.

• Spread tomatoes out on the baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and your favorite herbs. Thyme, oregano, and garlic are my “go-tos”. Drizzle the tops with more olive oil if you wish.
• Bake at 350°F for about 1 hour or until the edges of the tomatoes look dry and start to brown and the juices begin to caramelize. I let them go a little longer because the burnt ones are my favorites! Since my oven is ancient, I swap the sheets on the top and bottom racks after 1/2 hour for even cooking.

These roasted tomatoes are incredibly delicious and make a great sauce for pasta or rice—but don’t stop there! They are yummy on anything that benefits from an extra burst of flavorful tomato goodness. If you can control yourself and keep from eating them all right out of the oven, freeze them in bags or containers to use over the winter. I dole a cup or so of them out into each of the containers of soup mix I make up using whatever we have a surplus of (usually beans, summer squash, and kale or chard). It is a joy to have on hand when making soup in the winter. Just dump a quart of the mix into hot chicken broth, throw in a handful of rice or lentils to thicken it, and voila! A meal fit for a gardener!

Of course, there are many other ways to deal with a glut of tomatoes.

What Else To Do With Tomatoes

• Drying: You can dry tomatoes in a dehydrator or in the sun if you have access to a dry, south-facing location.

• Freeze tomatoes: Wash and freeze them whole. This is what I do with a lot of our extra tomatoes. It is easy to pull out just the number you need for a recipe and the skins slide right off in warm water. Much easier than dipping them in boiling water on a hot summer afternoon and peeling them before they go in the freezer.
• Fry or pickle green tomatoes: Tomatoes still green? No worries. Make delicious fried green tomatoes or green tomato pickles!
• Can tomatoes: Don’t forget canning. Now that the weather is cooler, canning is easier to do. Just clear your calendar and be prepared to make a day of it if you have a lot of tomatoes to process. Be sure to follow the USDA guidelines for safe canning procedures. It is a lot of work, but it’s very rewarding to see all those jars of tomatoes or sauce or salsa lined up in the pantry. See the Almanac’s Guide to Canning Tomatoes.

Have a Tomato Day!

Enjoy this video by a family friend. Every year, they have a “Tomato Day” to process the season’s tomato harvest. It’s the entire family working together—wife, husband, daughters, and husbands participating.

Stuffed Tomatoes

We were given seeds of an unnamed experimental hybrid tomato to try. It has given us lots of the most perfect-looking, round, red tomatoes. Unfortunately, they are hard as a rock even when dead ripe, and compared to the heirlooms we grow, they have no flavor. That said, they are perfect for stuffing, holding their shape even when baked for an hour. The stuffing helps to add flavor, and they are quite good served that way, but I will never grow them again!

How do you deal with your overabundance of tomatoes?

FAQs: Tomato Harvest, Ripening, and Recipes

How do I know when a tomato is ready to pick?

A ripe tomato will feel slightly tender to the touch and come off the vine with a gentle tug. Avoid waiting until it’s overly soft, or it may become overripe.

Can I ripen tomatoes after picking them?

Yes! Tomatoes continue to ripen off the vine. Keep slightly underripe tomatoes on a countertop at room temperature. For faster results, place them in a paper bag with a banana.

What should I do with cracked or imperfect tomatoes?

Imperfect tomatoes are perfect for salads, sandwiches, sauces, and roasting. Just cut away any damaged parts. Avoid using them for canning.

How can I encourage tomatoes to ripen faster on the vine

Reduce watering, remove extra blossoms, harvest smaller fruit, and shift roots gently to focus the plant’s energy on ripening.

How do I roast tomatoes?

Slice tomatoes, place them on a baking sheet with olive oil, salt, and herbs, and bake at 350°F for about 1 hour until caramelized. Roasted tomatoes are perfect for sauces, pastas, soups, or freezing.

What are the best ways to preserve a tomato harvest?

You can dry tomatoes in a dehydrator or sun, freeze whole tomatoes, fry or pickle green tomatoes, or follow USDA guidelines for canning.

Can I eat tomatoes that were affected by blight?

Only if the tomato tastes fine and there are no pests inside. If it’s off-flavored or contains larvae, discard it. Safety first!

Are green tomatoes edible?

Yes! Green tomatoes can be fried, pickled, or ripened indoors. Some varieties, like ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’, are meant to stay green and have a unique flavor.