How to store ripe tomatoes and green fruits?

People who think that it’s impossible to keep fresh tomatoes at home for a long time are very mistaken, a very perishable and moody product. In fact, there are several methods for storing tomatoes in an apartment without resorting to approaches like conservation. Not only vegetables grown and harvested independently, but also products purchased on the market are subject to warehousing.

In any case, preliminary processing of the components will be carried out, which will increase the chances of their successful and long storage. Best of all, brown tomatoes carry long-term storage at home. Ripe red products are best used for preparing blanks for the winter, and brown ones should be left for ripening and subsequent storage fresh.

Tomato processing methods that can extend their shelf life

Regardless of how you plan to store the tomatoes, you need to prepare the ingredients for the event. This will not only extend the shelf life of products, but also prevent weathering of the fresh aroma for which vegetables are so appreciated.

• First, we sort the vegetables by size and maturity. Storage of red and green fruits is carried out at different temperatures, and large vegetables, contrary to logic, ripen faster than small ones.
• At home, you can only store absolutely healthy and dense fruits. Even the smallest traces of phytophthora can spoil the entire bookmark, so the inspection must be carried out carefully.
• Tomatoes will last longer if they do not remove the stalks and dry them thoroughly before harvesting.

Tip: Before making the bookmark, the container should be treated with alcohol on all sides and dried. This will get rid of many pathogenic microbes and putrefactive bacteria, which will significantly extend the shelf life of tomatoes.

• Decades ago, agronomists knew how to keep tomatoes fresh. For this purpose, they used a weak gelatin solution or a thin wax layer. The product was applied to the fruits in a uniform layer and dried.
• Tomatoes pretreated with a 0.3% solution of boric acid or light pink potassium permanganate will last much longer.

After the vegetables are sorted and processed, you can begin to bookmark them. Some varieties, such as Cherry, are not subject to long storage. Their skin is so thin that it reacts too violently to any changes in the environment. Thick-skinned fruits, especially later varieties, respond to storage much better.

How can tomatoes be stored for the winter?

Depending on the conditions that can be created, you can choose one of the following approaches to storing tomatoes:

• We put the fruits in boxes with walls and a bottom in the form of a lattice, which we pre-lined with clean paper without a font. Multilayer laying is allowed, but the layers must be separated by paper sheets, peat or sawdust. We expose the containers in a room with good ventilation, since it will not work to keep tomatoes that constantly emit carbon dioxide in a room with standing air.
• It is better to wrap milk tomatoes with black parchment paper before laying them in a wire rack. Lay the layers with straw and put the box in a dark place. Ideal conditions will be with a stable temperature in the region of + 10ºС and good air flow.
• If you wish, you can save even ripened tomatoes, ready to eat.In order not to take risks, it is best to use one of the effective preservatives. You can fill the vegetables with vegetable oil, blocking them by 1 cm. Or prepare a solution of eight parts of water, one part of vinegar and one part of salt.
• Even overripe fruits can be salted, keeping for several weeks. To do this, wash the tomatoes, cut into large pieces and spread in a jar or pan with a 10-centimeter layer. Sprinkle salt with the bookmark and again spread the vegetables. So repeat until you can fill the dishes. It is not necessary to seal the container tightly, but it must be stored in the refrigerator.

In a room for storing tomatoes, the humidity level should be in the range of 80-90%, temperature - from +8 to + 12ºС. For storing red ripe tomatoes, it is better to lower the temperature to + 2ºC. Violation of the conditions leads to the appearance of mold or draining of the fruit.

How can tomatoes be stored for ripening?

Practice shows that only those tomatoes that have at least one brown spot on a green background can be taken for ripening. Absolutely green fruits, if they turn red, are uneven, and their taste will be quite specific.

How to store brown tomatoes for their ripening:

• We wipe the fruits, put them in 10 kg containers with the petioles up. Clean, sanitized boxes are best.
• Tomatoes should not be in contact, they need to be sprinkled with sawdust or each fruit separately wrapped in very thin paper.
• The box must be covered with a lid, but air must be left open. Such blanks are stored at a temperature of +4 .. + 6ºС.

Ripening and storage of green tomatoes:

• The easiest way is to spread the tomatoes in a warm room, then their ripening will take no more than three days. Experts recommend keeping the fruits in the dark, then the ripening process will not go so fast, but in the end the tomatoes will have a uniform red color.
• Tomatoes laid out in boxes and plentifully sprinkled with onion husks will last much longer. The temperature should be kept within -2 .. + 2ºС.

If green tomatoes do not blush for a long time, most likely this will immediately be followed by a stage of decay. In this case, the room must be ventilated, having previously removed the fruits to another place. Similar effects may indicate an excess of carbon dioxide in the room or an excess of heat.

Keep tomatoes in the refrigerator correctly

Storage of tomatoes in the refrigerator is acceptable, but undesirable. In a chamber with a constantly changing temperature (due to opening the door), processes occur that negatively affect the state of vegetables. Do not keep tomatoes in the refrigerator for more than 2-3 days. And if you plan to bookmark them for the winter, then this period should be reduced to a day.

Immediately after arriving from the store, vegetables should be removed from a plastic bag and laid out in the appropriate tray, previously wrapped with paper. This will extend the freshness of the ingredients, while spoiling one component will not adversely affect the entire batch.

If rot-prevention manipulations do not produce the desired result, pasteurization will be the only salvation of the product. It can be easily carried out at home. We heat the water to 55-65ºС, lower the spoiled fruits with brown spots into it. We wait no more than two minutes, remove the fruits and dry them by spreading them on a towel or paper in a ventilated room. This manipulation will add tomatoes no more than a few days, but prevent their rapid decay.