And yet for some years there had been an acquaintanceship which appeared to be slowly ripening into a friendship between these two very different rivals.

Crops slowly ripened under the sun, and parties of Hunters returned with trophies of meat or fish.

Evening came on and ripened slowly to dusk.

"But you don't understand," said Ford, his expression slowly ripening from a little taken abackness into rank incredulity.

These conditions, he said, allowed grapes to ripen slowly.

In the fields, row upon row of pear and apple trees hung heavy with the season's next harvest slowly ripening in the bright summer sun.

There are still ripe tomatoes to pick each morning, but the green ones are ripening slowly.

Fruits ripen slowly, but once ripe their shelf life is longer than that of the tamarillo.

This, then, should be a process allowed to ripen slowly.

The wonderfully suggestive central poetic image is a mango ripening slowly in a closed earthenware jar.