Don't keep tomatoes in the fridge.

**heartofmine** · 01-23-2009, 01:02 PM

They will last longer if you put them on the counter turned with the stem area down.

**IntlMom** · 01-23-2009, 01:03 PM

Not only that, but the texture is GAGGY when you put them in the fridge....I think they turn all "cotton-y" in the fridge. bleh

**dogmatix** · 01-23-2009, 08:11 PM

Going to fridge right now......

**thehughughes** · 01-23-2009, 08:28 PM

My family can not get that in their heads. I pull them out they put them back in. I tell everyone. Repeat next week. Now if I could get them to put the milk in the fridge. LOL

**madhen** · 01-23-2009, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by thehughughes

My family can not get that in their heads. I pull them out they put them back in. I tell everyone. Repeat next week. Now if I could get them to put the milk in the fridge. LOL

Maybe you should store your tomatoes in milk cartons.

**dcompton** · 01-23-2009, 09:02 PM

I've also read that temps below (I think) 55 degrees or so destoys some compound in them that accounts for much of their flavor. Another reason not to refrigerate them.

**Contrary Housewife** · 01-24-2009, 01:32 AM

Fresh picked tomatoes, like the ones you grow yourself should be left on the counter for best flavor and eaten within a few days.

Ones you get from the grocery have already been refrigerated and the ripening has stopped, so they will not keep or improve on the counter. Remember that by the time they get to your store, they are probably already 3-5 days old, and don't have as long a lifespan as something from your garden would.

I don't know where you live, but around here it is usually too humid and warm to leave any kind of food out. It will go bad much faster on the counter (as if I have space to put things like tomatoes) than it will in the fridge. In the summer we have fruit flies that would be uncontrollable if produce was left out.

**shadowfax** · 01-26-2009, 12:43 PM

If your tomatoes are not quite ripe place them in a paper bag and close it up. They will ripen faster than in a window sil.

Yes Tomatoes are a warm climate crop and do not handle being cold well at all. Restaurant guide is to not store them below 55* or above, I think, 70*

Lettuce OTOH likes the cold. It is grown in cold weather in early spring and late fall. Sore lettuce at about 35-50*

**Christopher1** · 01-30-2009, 02:17 AM

I keep always tomatoes in fridge..... but i should not i think.... at the same way we should not keep banana in fridge ,,,,, if you are keeping banana then cover it with cotton cloth and keep it in fridge...

**Michelle** · 01-30-2009, 07:32 AM

I didn't know about turning them stem side down, but I did know that you shouldn't put them in the fridge.

**Buc-O-Mama** · 01-30-2009, 08:53 PM

Is the suggestion to maximize flavor/texture or to prevent spoilage. Being in FL (and keeping my AC set above 78 degrees) I would imagine that they would spoil in a quickness around here.