Storing your tomatoes!

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I was reprimanded by one of my girlfriend the other day for storing my tomatoes in my refridgerator;,she told me this is something i shouldn't do; this is all new time as i have being putting my tomatoes in my fridge forever. How do you store your tomatoes?
 
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I was reprimanded by one of my girlfriend the other day for storing my tomatoes in my refridgerator;,she told me this is something i shouldn't do; this is all new time as i have being putting my tomatoes in my fridge forever. How do you store your tomatoes?
Storing ripe tomatoes in the fridge prolongs their shelf life. I stops the ripening process. You can pick your unripe tomatoes and store them unrefridgerated and they will still ripen. I pick my tomatoes at the first sign of coloring and keep them inside on a table. This way birds and other pests don't get them. When they get to the ripened stage that I like I refridgerate them then. When I have too many ripened tomatoes I can them or run them thru a food processer and freeze them. Makes a really great fresh salsa or sauce
 
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Fresh salsa is the best, especially when you have the other ingredients in the garden. I keep hearing from people that you shouldn't put your tomatoes in the fridge but it isn't a truth. Like Chuck I pick at the hint of color and bring them in to ripen inside.
 
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Don't they taste better if they ripen while still on the plant?

The longer they ripen on the plant the sweeter they taste, as far as I know they shouldn't be refrigerated, that has only been done since the supermarkets got hold of them, they do it as has been said to slow down the ripening process, which gives them more time to get to them to stores.

Best way to store them, is like any other fruit, but keep them away from bananas, they will ripen faster near ripe fruit, especially bananas, if you have a glut you can make your own ketchup, and chutney, much better for you than the shop bought stuff.
 
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The longer they ripen on the plant the sweeter they taste, as far as I know they shouldn't be refrigerated, that has only been done since the supermarkets got hold of them, they do it as has been said to slow down the ripening process, which gives them more time to get to them to stores.

Best way to store them, is like any other fruit, but keep them away from bananas, they will ripen faster near ripe fruit, especially bananas, if you have a glut you can make your own ketchup, and chutney, much better for you than the shop bought stuff.
I beg to differ. Maybe and I mean maybe, if you had a completely vine ripened tomato side by side with a tomato picked when just turning color and let it ripen indoors you might be able to taste the difference but I doubt it. If you try to store a ripe tomato unrefridgerated for any length of time IT WILL BECOME MUSHY AN ROT. And it doesn't take all that long either. A ripe tomato in refridgeration will last much much longer before it gets mushy and rots. Have you ever wondered why store bought tomatoes taste like cardboard? It is because they are picked GREEN, before they have started to turn color. They are picked green to give a long enough time for shipping and also to reduce brusing during shipment. Then these commercial tomatoes are gassed to give them the red color and they are kept under refridgeration to keep them from rotting, thus the taste of unripe tomatos or tomatos with no taste at all.

Like any other fruit? Let's take an orange for instance. Place an orange out on a table and place one in the fridge. Go on a month vacation. When you come back you want an orange and remember "I've got one on the table" and you find out to your dismay that it has turned into something vaguely resembling an orange but unedible. So you settle for a beer instead. You open up the fridge door and low and behold there is an orange in there. And it still looks like an orange too and still tastes like one too. If you want to extend the life of your fruit you must refridgerate or use other means like freezing or canning or making something.

I would love to keep all of my tomatos on the vine until completely ripe because it would be less labor intensive but I nor many others can't. It seems as though birds and field rats and mice and coons and possums and squirrels and stink bugs and a host of other maladies all seem to like that beautiful red fruit. And if you don't want to freeze or can or just don't have enough tomatos to do these things then refridgeration is your only option, eithier that or leave them on the table to rot
 
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I beg to differ. Maybe and I mean maybe, if you had a completely vine ripened tomato side by side with a tomato picked when just turning color and let it ripen indoors you might be able to taste the difference but I doubt it. If you try to store a ripe tomato unrefridgerated for any length of time IT WILL BECOME MUSHY AN ROT. And it doesn't take all that long either. A ripe tomato in refridgeration will last much much longer before it gets mushy and rots. Have you ever wondered why store bought tomatoes taste like cardboard? It is because they are picked GREEN, before they have started to turn color. They are picked green to give a long enough time for shipping and also to reduce brusing during shipment. Then these commercial tomatoes are gassed to give them the red color and they are kept under refridgeration to keep them from rotting, thus the taste of unripe tomatos or tomatos with no taste at all.

Like any other fruit? Let's take an orange for instance. Place an orange out on a table and place one in the fridge. Go on a month vacation. When you come back you want an orange and remember "I've got one on the table" and you find out to your dismay that it has turned into something vaguely resembling an orange but unedible. So you settle for a beer instead. You open up the fridge door and low and behold there is an orange in there. And it still looks like an orange too and still tastes like one too. If you want to extend the life of your fruit you must refridgerate or use other means like freezing or canning or making something.

I would love to keep all of my tomatos on the vine until completely ripe because it would be less labor intensive but I nor many others can't. It seems as though birds and field rats and mice and coons and possums and squirrels and stink bugs and a host of other maladies all seem to like that beautiful red fruit. And if you don't want to freeze or can or just don't have enough tomatos to do these things then refridgeration is your only option, eithier that or leave them on the table to rot


Firstly can I say that most of us here in the UK grow our tomatoes under glass, ie: in a greenhouse, so the problems with birds etc do not exist.
Secondly, when we do grow them out side we tend to do it in a "fruit cage" which again stops most of the problems you state.

Then you say this :

Maybe and I mean maybe, if you had a completely vine ripened tomato side by side with a tomato picked when just turning color and let it ripen indoors you might be able to taste the difference but I doubt it. If you try to store a ripe tomato unrefridgerated for any length of time IT WILL BECOME MUSHY AN ROT. And it doesn't take all that long either. A ripe tomato in refridgeration will last much much longer before it gets mushy and rots. Have you ever wondered why store bought tomatoes taste like cardboard?

You state that shop bought tomatoes taste like cardboard because they are picked unripe, and allowed to ripen off the vine, if this is the case for shop bought ones, then it must be for home grown ones, or am i missing something in your logic ?

Firstly a tomato ripened off the vine will not taste as sweet, and it will have a tougher skin.
My father used to really have a go at me, I would go along his vines, with some salt and eat the ripe ones, straight off the vines, like apples off a tree.
Yet if my Mother bought some from the shop to keep me away from the homegrown ones, I could tell the difference straight away.

I think the difference is that my Gandparents were market gardeners, they grew all their own food, yes they kept pigs and sheep too, everything was organic, Father and my grandad would not allow any chemicals anywhere near the crops, I spent hours picking caterpillars off brassicas, watering plants, not with a hose but with a can from 1000 gallon waterbutts that collected water off the roof of the house.

We had orchards, and soft fruit. As it was a source of income as well as food, we tended to treat it with care, and respect it, things were always eaten fresh, so I assume I developed a palate than can taste the difference between shop and home grown.
 
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I beg to differ. Maybe and I mean maybe, if you had a completely vine ripened tomato side by side with a tomato picked when just turning color and let it ripen indoors you might be able to taste the difference but I doubt it. If you try to store a ripe tomato unrefridgerated for any length of time IT WILL BECOME MUSHY AN ROT. And it doesn't take all that long either. A ripe tomato in refridgeration will last much much longer before it gets mushy and rots. Have you ever wondered why store bought tomatoes taste like cardboard? It is because they are picked GREEN, before they have started to turn color. They are picked green to give a long enough time for shipping and also to reduce brusing during shipment. Then these commercial tomatoes are gassed to give them the red color and they are kept under refridgeration to keep them from rotting, thus the taste of unripe tomatos or tomatos with no taste at all.

Like any other fruit? Let's take an orange for instance. Place an orange out on a table and place one in the fridge. Go on a month vacation. When you come back you want an orange and remember "I've got one on the table" and you find out to your dismay that it has turned into something vaguely resembling an orange but unedible. So you settle for a beer instead. You open up the fridge door and low and behold there is an orange in there. And it still looks like an orange too and still tastes like one too. If you want to extend the life of your fruit you must refridgerate or use other means like freezing or canning or making something.

I would love to keep all of my tomatos on the vine until completely ripe because it would be less labor intensive but I nor many others can't. It seems as though birds and field rats and mice and coons and possums and squirrels and stink bugs and a host of other maladies all seem to like that beautiful red fruit. And if you don't want to freeze or can or just don't have enough tomatos to do these things then refridgeration is your only option, eithier that or leave them on the table to rot
I'm convinced; I'm storing 16 oranges on the table.

Seriously though, we should forget shop-bought in this argument.
Growers are forced to produce varieties for supermarkets with three perameters, shelf-life, uniformity and cosmetic perfection.
Flavour and texture are of no consequence to the supermarkets.
 
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I have never stored my tomatoes in a refrigerator. I had no idea that some people do this. I guess it's necessary only if you live in a very hot climate.
I always keep tomatoes in a big, glass bowl on my kitchen counter.
 
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Firstly can I say that most of us here in the UK grow our tomatoes under glass, ie: in a greenhouse, so the problems with birds etc do not exist.
Secondly, when we do grow them out side we tend to do it in a "fruit cage" which again stops most of the problems you state.

Then you say this :

Maybe and I mean maybe, if you had a completely vine ripened tomato side by side with a tomato picked when just turning color and let it ripen indoors you might be able to taste the difference but I doubt it. If you try to store a ripe tomato unrefridgerated for any length of time IT WILL BECOME MUSHY AN ROT. And it doesn't take all that long either. A ripe tomato in refridgeration will last much much longer before it gets mushy and rots. Have you ever wondered why store bought tomatoes taste like cardboard?

You state that shop bought tomatoes taste like cardboard because they are picked unripe, and allowed to ripen off the vine, if this is the case for shop bought ones, then it must be for home grown ones, or am i missing something in your logic ?

Firstly a tomato ripened off the vine will not taste as sweet, and it will have a tougher skin.
My father used to really have a go at me, I would go along his vines, with some salt and eat the ripe ones, straight off the vines, like apples off a tree.
Yet if my Mother bought some from the shop to keep me away from the homegrown ones, I could tell the difference straight away.

I think the difference is that my Gandparents were market gardeners, they grew all their own food, yes they kept pigs and sheep too, everything was organic, Father and my grandad would not allow any chemicals anywhere near the crops, I spent hours picking caterpillars off brassicas, watering plants, not with a hose but with a can from 1000 gallon waterbutts that collected water off the roof of the house.

We had orchards, and soft fruit. As it was a source of income as well as food, we tended to treat it with care, and respect it, things were always eaten fresh, so I assume I developed a palate than can taste the difference between shop and home grown.
I am learning that there is a vast difference in growing techniques between the UK and Texas but when I said shop bought tomatoes taste like cardboard and picked green I should have been more specific. Commercial growers pick them in an unripened stage, gas them, refridgerate them and ship them. They are not allowed to ripen and that was the whole point. Refridgeration stops the ripening process. But this thread was about the best way to store ripe tomatoes and I still say leaving them unrefridgerated is the last thing you want to do. They will just get riper and riper becoming a fruit fly factory

I guess we will have to agree to disagree on the matter of taste between vine ripened and off the vine ripened. I cannot tell any difference in the taste or texture of the skin. Maybe it's just me and then maybe it could be beause of the tremendous amount of sunlight we receive as compared to you.

My parents also had a farm. Not big, only 13 acres under cultivation. They and I were market farmers and I too have eaten my share of tomatos right of the vine and corn and green beans and everything else grown in a vegetable garden too. Tasteing was how we determined if it was ready to market. Back in those days we didn't have refridgeration either. I wish we would have. It would have saved a lot of tomatos
 
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I am learning that there is a vast difference in growing techniques between the UK and Texas but when I said shop bought tomatoes taste like cardboard and picked green I should have been more specific. Commercial growers pick them in an unripened stage, gas them, refridgerate them and ship them. They are not allowed to ripen and that was the whole point. Refridgeration stops the ripening process. But this thread was about the best way to store ripe tomatoes and I still say leaving them unrefridgerated is the last thing you want to do. They will just get riper and riper becoming a fruit fly factory

I guess we will have to agree to disagree on the matter of taste between vine ripened and off the vine ripened. I cannot tell any difference in the taste or texture of the skin. Maybe it's just me and then maybe it could be beause of the tremendous amount of sunlight we receive as compared to you.

My parents also had a farm. Not big, only 13 acres under cultivation. They and I were market farmers and I too have eaten my share of tomatos right of the vine and corn and green beans and everything else grown in a vegetable garden too. Tasteing was how we determined if it was ready to market. Back in those days we didn't have refridgeration either. I wish we would have. It would have saved a lot of tomatos


Personally I think a lot has to do with the variety of tomato grown as well, some admittedly do have tougher skins than others, we only ever grow toms for salad, it's very rare we grow the varieties developed for cooking.
 
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I've been keeping tomatoes in the refrigerator because I like to eat them cold ,but it also gets pretty hot in Florida and I don't like to leave food sitting out.
I've noticed that when I leave fruit and vegetables out, they attract a lot of flies. I guess the people who leave their fruit sitting out on the table don't have a problem with flies.
 
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Personally I think a lot has to do with the variety of tomato grown as well, some admittedly do have tougher skins than others, we only ever grow toms for salad, it's very rare we grow the varieties developed for cooking.
You're right. Over here horticulturists are hybridizing tomatos to set fruit later and later and in hotter conditions. They call them heat setters and to a small degree they have been successful. The downside is the skins are really thick and I mean thick. I haven't seen much in the way of late setting though, maybe a couple of degrees F. But they don't sunscald which is a problem here beginning about July 1 when it really starts to get hot. which is another reason I harvest early. Also, because of our different climates, I think we on the whole produce a greater number of tomatos per plant which leads to "what do I do with all these tomatos?" And thereby refridgeration

I think it is safe to say that overall the average tomato gardener in the US will grow a few of the smaller varieties like the Cherry types and maybe some Romas but will mainly grow the varities in the 4 oz - 8 oz range and those in the cooler states the big varieties like the Beef types. Personally I get a little tired of eating fresh tomatos every day for weeks at a time so I grow a lot of the canning types that I make sauces, paste, salsas and whole canned tomatos out of. I need a place to keep all these ripe tomatos until I have enough to make it worth while to fire up the pressure cooker. My cooker will do 18 pints at a time and I do 2 loads a day so that adds up to quite a few tomatos. Thus refridgeration. Admitidly, I grow a lot more tomatos than the average gardener but over here a garden with only 6 plants will produce a lot of tomatos, more tomatos than most folks care to eat on a daily basis. So what to do with them in the mean time? A lot of people give them away but many others don't. So when they have enough tomatos stored in the vegetable bin in their fridge they do can make something. So, having said all this I believe refridgeration is the best way to store tomatos, at least over here in the US
 

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