tips for tomatoes.

ripening store-bought tomatoes: 
the best tomatoes are homegrown and ripened on the vine, but if this is not available to you, or affordable you can help hard tomatoes to ripen by placing them in a brown paper bag on the kitchen counter for a few days. 

when they are ripe and ready to eat they will yield slightly to gentle pressure.

you can also ripen green tomatoes in this way, or in a single layer on newspaper in a box in a moderately temperate room.