When the weather guy announced a high chance of a frost in the forecast, my husband harvested our tomatoes. He left a little of the vine on them as suggested by SalPal on my post November Tomatoes.
My husband left the main plant in tact and re-covered it with cheesecloth because it still has blooms and it may or may not die with this frost.
From many years of experience, my brother knows oodles about tomatoes: growing, propagating and ripening. He told me that one of the best ways to ripen tomatoes is in a paper bag or cardboard box with either a banana or apple in with them. The ethylene gas produced by an apple or banana helps the tomatoes ripen better. We agreed that a banana seemed like a possibly messy idea, so an apple seemed the best option.
The bag or box needs to be closed and put in a cool dark place and checked every day, if your tomatoes are at different levels of ripening like mine are.
We haven’t tried one yet. You can’t tell it from the photos, but the reddest ones are still bit under-ripe.
Regardless of the taste, it’s been really enjoyable watching the volunteer plant grow and produce in November. It’s been a rare treat and that in itself is worth the attention and care we’ve given it.
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Joys Of Creating 
Oh, I hope your vines will make it through this frost. We’ll be waiting to hear how those tomates taste; they’re looking pretty!
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Thanks Dianna
I checker the tomatoes this morning and the ripest ones will hopefully be ready this evening. Stay tuned. 🙂
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never heard of the apple – I have heard of the bag approach, but I am too lazy. They just sit on my kitchen windowsill. I have a couple more left, and then I am done until next year. 😦 Can’t wait to hear how it goes with bag and apple, though.
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Thanks Salpal
It’s kind of a sad thing to eat the last of the tomatoes and realize that it’ll be many months until you can grow fresh ones again.
The window sill was always my first choice until these tomatoes. The apple was new to me too, but so far it’s proving to be working quite well. Stay tuned. 🙂
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Glad it is working! Yes, it is sad to eat the last of the good tomatoes! I was in Subway last week getting a salad, and the tomatoes were AWFUL – pale orange, mealy. I told them not to bother. Long time until fresh tomatoes. 😦
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Thanks Salpal
We’re like you. The hothouse tomatoes taste so bland and ruin a salad or sandwich.
I agree, it’s a long time until we can grow our own tasty fresh tomatoes. Waiting makes for a long Winter. 🙂
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My dad loved to grow tomatoes and we just put them on the windowsill. It is interesting to read about the apple in the bag. I have never heard of that one.
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Thanks Laura
I was raised with sitting the tomatoes on the window sill to ripen. Well, except at the end of the season, then my folks would pick them and put them in paper grocery bags and set them in the storage closet to ripen. The apple was new to me, but so far, it seems to work just fine. 🙂
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