How To Store Tomatoes? Storage In The Refrigerator At Home, The Shelf Life Of Tomatoes. Can Tomatoes Be Stored With Eggplants?

2024 Author: Beatrice Philips | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-18 12:09

It is difficult to imagine a vitamin salad without a delicious juicy tomato. This vegetable goes well with cucumbers, lettuce, cheese, olives. It is also good in meat salads. Unfortunately, harvested tomatoes may not be stored for long.

Many housewives are trying to extend their shelf life. How to store the harvest at home, how to keep the harvested vegetables longer and how to properly ripen green tomatoes, and will be discussed in the article.

Storage requirements

Tomatoes are considered by many to be the most delicious fruits, which are used as one of the ingredients of seasonal salads, as well as as an addition to hot dishes. With the onset of cold weather, it becomes more difficult to find high-quality ripe fruits suitable for food. They begin to deteriorate, rot, and their taste characteristics deteriorate. Without compliance with the requirements, ripe fruits will be able to maintain their presentation for several days.

At lower temperatures, such as storing vegetables in the refrigerator, tomatoes can be edible for 8-10 days. Their shelf life can be extended even up to several months. The tomato variety itself plays a significant role in preserving the harvest. Hybrid varieties are usually less susceptible to disease, which is why they are usually chosen for long-term storage. For this purpose, it is worth using not only hybrid, but also mid-season and late varieties.

There are certain requirements, the fulfillment of which will allow you to preserve a delicious vegetable for a longer period

• Leaving vegetables for storage, it is necessary to inspect them and remove specimens with spots, darkening, cracks or other defects … They must be whole and not overripe. It is advisable to focus on unripe fruits.
• Care must be taken to maintain the optimal temperature regime . The degree of maturity plays an important role in this.
• It is important that the room has good ventilation .

Compliance with these simple rules will allow you to keep tomatoes in good condition for a long time. It is recommended to pick vegetables on a dry, cool day. It is important that on them there was no dew or drops remaining after watering. It is better to pick fruits with stalks, their presence will help to significantly extend their shelf life … You should lay out the vegetables with the stalk up, it is also recommended to wrap the tip with duct tape. Thanks to this method, tomatoes will not lose moisture, which will affect the shelf life.

It is undesirable to postpone harvesting, since temperatures below five degrees Celsius will begin to negatively affect the fruits. Outside the bush, tomatoes may remain green and begin to rot soon.

Seat selection

For rural residents, choosing a place to store vegetables for the winter is not considered a problem . Comfortable and spacious basements will help them with this. In such a cellar there is a place for pickles, preparations, and it will also be possible to put boxes with vegetables and fruits here.

It will be much more difficult to find such a zone in a city apartment. But you can still find several suitable places.

• Refrigerator … Vegetables should be kept in the refrigerator for a long time, especially if they are placed in an area with minimal cooling, such as a vegetable container and shelves on the doors. At home in the refrigerator, vegetables will be able to maintain their presentation for 6-8 days. Before sending vegetables to the refrigerator, they should not be washed, they should be dry and clean. It is better not to close the container hermetically, otherwise, due to the moisture that has appeared inside, the crop will begin to rot. When storing in the refrigerator, it should be borne in mind that tomatoes will eventually begin to lose their characteristic pleasant aroma, since in such temperature conditions the substances that give tomatoes their inherent taste and smell are destroyed. In order to partially restore the taste of vegetables, it is recommended to take them out in advance so that they warm up.
• Pantry … If there is a convenient pantry in the room, which does not have heating devices, you can also keep vegetables here. To do this, the crop is laid out in boxes or other containers and left.
• Windowsill … For short-term storage, tomatoes can be left on a table, windowsill or other surface, laid flat side down. It is important that this area is protected from direct sunlight. Within 2-3 days, the fruits laid out in one layer will remain tasty, with their characteristic aroma. In the event that the vegetables are not yet fully ripe, it is recommended to put them on the windowsill, and then move them to the refrigerator.
• Balconies or loggias . In autumn and winter, heated balconies and loggias are suitable for storing crops. The temperature there usually stays at around 10-20 degrees Celsius. For better preservation, the crop is laid out in one layer and covered with a thick cloth so that bright light does not fall on the fruits.

In the absence of a pantry, insulated balcony or loggia, you can simply lay out the crop on the floor . Under a cupboard or under a bed, you can find a suitable place to place your crop by laying out paper and laying out the vegetables in one layer. It is necessary to regularly check how well the vegetables feel and their safety.

For the preservation of ripe fruit, it is better to use clean trellised boxes. They can be made of wood, and plastic options are also suitable. At the bottom of them, sheets of clean paper or parchment should be laid, then tomatoes are laid out on the base. It is recommended to transfer each subsequent row with paper or wrap tomatoes in it. Having laid out the vegetables, it is necessary to pour over sawdust or peat. With this storage method, vegetables will be fresh for several months. It is important to maintain a suitable temperature while doing this. It should not exceed 8-12 degrees Celsius.

It is recommended to store harvested tomatoes in rooms where the optimum temperature is maintained. It is regulated depending on the degree of ripeness of the fruit:

• the optimal temperature for storing green fruits is 12-15 degrees;
• for white tomatoes, the temperature is 8-10 degrees;
• brown tomatoes are stored at a temperature of 4-6 degrees, and for red fruits, a mark of 0-2 degrees is considered optimal.

The storage life of a ripe crop is also affected by the humidity in the room. It should not exceed 85-90%.

How to keep it longer?

For preservation, they use both vegetables purchased in the store and homemade tomatoes. The bookmark will stay fresh longer if certain requirements are met.

• It is necessary to revise the harvest and sort the specimens, separately selecting large and smaller tomatoes . Large fruits will ripen longer, while small fruits will ripen completely.
• You should also sort the harvest according to the degree of ripeness, separating green specimens from brown and red tomatoes , since they take different time to ripen. Overripe vegetables should not be left; they are used immediately.
• It is better not to keep ripe and fully ripe fruits in close proximity to unripe ones .… The ethylene emitted by them will affect the ripening of the neighboring ones, therefore it is better to remove soft and ripe tomatoes from the storage place immediately. For the same reason, it is not recommended to leave the harvest of apples and pears harvested in the fall next to tomatoes. Do not keep them together with eggplants.

You can save red fruits until December and longer in different ways

• Storage in vegetable oil . With this method, you must prepare a clean, dry 3-liter jar. Then you need to start preparing vegetables. They are washed and dipped in a prepared container. Oil is poured over the workpiece, covering the vegetables completely. After that, the jar is covered with a lid and set aside.
• In brine . With this method, you need to make a brine. For him, mix water, adding salt with vinegar in a ratio of 8: 1: 1. Next, the prepared fruits are put in a jar and poured with an acid-salty solution.
• In a vacuum . For the safety of the harvest, ripe resilient tomatoes are used, which are placed in glass jars up to their shoulders. A small candle is placed inside the container, but without flavorings, and set on fire. Next, you need to carefully lower the lid and roll it up. The candle will go out as all the oxygen burns out. It is important that it does not go out while the can is being rolled up.
• In a container with mustard . Unlike conventional preservation, vegetables prepared in this way will be kept fresh. You need to take a 3-liter jar, put a layer of mustard powder on the bottom, lay a row of tomatoes. Then they put a piece of paper on it, pour a handful of mustard. So, alternating layers, the container is filled to the top. Mustard is added last. The jar is covered with a lid and rolled up.
• Salting is considered a proven method . To pickle vegetables, you need to sort out the tomatoes and select high-quality ripe fruits, free them from the stalks. Overripe specimens must be selected separately and cut into pieces. After that, you need to fill the container with a layer of 8-10 cm chopped tomatoes, add a little salt to them, then lay out a layer of selected elastic ripe tomatoes and sprinkle with salt again. The container is completely filled to the top. Salt is added last. The container is hermetically sealed and set aside in a cool place.
• By drying . Sun-dried tomatoes are a Mediterranean delicacy. You can dry them naturally and in the oven.

Freezing tomatoes in the freezer is a good way to preserve crops. During the freezing process, the product will retain all the vitamins and minerals, so this method is also popular with many housewives.

To freeze you need:

• wash and dry vegetables;
• cut the fruits into slices, then put them on a platter or on a tray;
• cover them with a film so that they do not begin to lose moisture and absorb foreign aromas;
• put in the freezer for 3-4 hours;
• remove from the freezer, fold the rings into a convenient container or bag and send back to the cold.

There are other methods of freezing tomatoes. They can be stored whole, cut into pieces, or as a puree.

Where is the best place to ripen green tomatoes?

For long-term storage, it is better to choose unripe tomatoes. It is recommended to remove green fruits from the bush as late as possible, for example, in October. For preservation, vegetables must be wrapped in thin paper . In this case, it is advisable to choose not transparent paper or parchment, but black sheets. The wrapped fruits are wrapped and laid out in ventilated boxes, not forgetting to alternate the rows with sawdust or straw.

Such workpieces are recommended to be kept in well-ventilated dry and dark places at a temperature of +10 degrees . In favorable conditions, the vegetables will gradually ripen, so the hostesses will be able to please their guests with a salad of ripe tomatoes by the New Year.

Useful Tips

The advice of experienced housewives will help to preserve the presentation of the tomatoes, their aroma and taste

• To extend shelf life and kill germs , immediately before putting vegetables in boxes, it is recommended to process them with pharmacy alcohol, and then dry them.
• Don't wash your crops by sending it to your bookmark.
• For better keeping quality, tomatoes can be treat with a solution of boric acid (0.3%) or a weak solution of potassium permanganate .
• Do not remove the stalk , its presence will prolong the preservation. They spread the tomatoes with the stalk up so that the delicate crust near it does not burst, which will cause damage to the crop.
• Vegetables are laid out in boxes in one layer so that they do not crack under the weight.

The crop should be checked regularly. When rot appears, diseased fruits must be removed immediately so as not to infect healthy ones. There are many ways and places to store green and ripe tomatoes, allowing you to feast on these delicious vegetables almost all year round.