Tomato storage advice

I am often asked how to store a certain variety of produce for maximum storage life.  There are a number of great sources for this information scattered around the net.  But, the advice is often incomplete or conflicting.  In many cases the answer is “well, it depends”.  I thought it might be a good idea to make a page for each variety with a distillation of the advice that it out there and our experience.  I would love to include your experience in this compilation, too.  I would like to have your comments on the format and the advice itself.

Because it is my favorite, I started with tomatoes.  I hope to add about a variety a week until there is a page for every commonly available variety of produce.  Click on the link below to open the .pdf file.

tomato storage

The best season of the year – TOMATO season.

I came across one of the most interesting tomato items last week. For the last few years we have been buying the “tomatoes on the vine” during the “off” season. We think they taste better and we think they last longer in the fruit bowl than other tomatoes, even after they are dead ripe. Clearly, we were not the only people to notice that. Cook’s Illustrated magazine had a short item in their on line version that I find fascinating.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/howto/detail.asp?docid=1173

We had always assumed that the difference we were seeing had to do with the genetics of the “tomato on the vine”. But, in the Cook’s Illustrated (great magazine) article, they find that tomatoes last longer stored stem end down – or more surprisingly if you put a piece of tape over the stem end. They suggest that the longer shelf life may be do to less moisture loss and limiting entry of bacteria or spores through the stem end.

It could be that we need to change the way we pick our tomatoes from the garden. Rather than pulling them off the fine, would cutting them off instead make them last longer? The idea of putting a tape on the vine end of tomatoes purchased at a farmers market may be a good idea, too.

We are going to do some experimenting and hope you do to. Let me know what you find!

Peaches as good as they get.

We have been getting luscious peaches and loving it!  They are messy, but, oh the taste.  Last week I got into some that were mealy and pretty disappointing.  When you bite into one like that, you know what has happened.  They have been stored too cool, before they were ripe.

Peaches and nectarines are climacteric and do need ethylene in order to ripen properly.  But, they are a little more sensitive to temperature treatment than most fruits.  They should be fully ripe before they are refrigerated.  When you have peaches that need a little time, do NOT refrigerate them.  They should be stored together, perhaps in a closed space, at room temperature until they are ready to eat.  If they are stored together in a closed space, where the ethylene they are giving off can accumulate, the ripening will be a little more even.  Be sure not to restrict oxygen, though.  Only when they are perfectly ripe should they be put in the refrigerator, in which there is an E.G.G.

Peaches are one of the surest sign of summer.  Don’t miss out.

Actually, I wish LT would be dramatic.

 

Customer letter

 

The E.G.G. and bananas

I had a long conversation with a customer (happy, I hasten to add) about using the E.G.G. with her bananas. She said that one of her problems has been that when she has bananas on the counter, her kitchen fills up with fruit flies.  She said that she has found a way around the problem. She puts the bananas into a brown paper sack with an egg (from the E.G.G.). The paper bag keeps the flies from getting to the fruit.  Before the E.G.G., she could not get away with that because the bananas would ripen very quickly, because of the ethylene trapped inside. She said the E.G.G. fixed the problem.  Clearly, that would work with any fruit that draws fruit flies if you live in an area that has that problem.

Generally, my calls from customers are asking for advice.  I love it when customers call me with advice.  If you have advice for our customers, drop me a line.  If you have advice for me, that is funneled through Betsy.  I am not giving out her email address!

Word of Mouth works for the E.G.G.

Right after Friday’s post, we received this confirmation:

A friend referred me to your website. She thinks your product is amazing and is telling everyone how great it works!
WQ from CA 8/2/09

Of course, the real payoff comes when she tells her friends about it.

 

The best form of advertising

A friend highly recommended you.  If I like the product, will be recommending to our daughters.
PH from AZ
7/30/09

Raspberries

I was talking to a freind last week who was bragging about the raspberries he had picked last week.  Raspberries around here won’t be ready for another couple of weeks.  So, I think this was mostly a conversation about my choice of places to call home.  He said that they had eaten all they could weekend before last and had put the rest in the refrigerator.  He was pretty “disappointed” (my word) when they wanted to use them last weekend and found that they were totally consumed by grey mold.

Of course, I had a suggestion of what he should have done to prevent that.  Although raspberries are non climacteric (do not use ethylene in their normal ripening cycle), they are effected by ethylene.  For reasons not altogether clear, the presence of ethylene around raspberries increases their suseptability to diseases, especially mold.  If my friend would have had an E.G.G. in his refrigerator, he would have had a second weekend of raspberry heaven!

At least in Wyoming, we know about how to make our scanty produce crop last!  So there, Ed.

Another customer comment

Few things are sadder than rotting produce!

Boy have I found out if these really work. Ran out on the 15th of May and my produce is rotting!

DM, OR 6/18/09

Let E.G.G. users take over

Since I clearly have problems keeping the blog current, I thought it would be a good idea to use some of our customers comments made while reordering the E.G.G..

The E.G.G. works so well. I’ve tried the produce bags that recently came on the market and I do not like them. They collect so much moisture inside and you’re constantly wiping out the inside of the bag. I don’t have time for that and they really don’t seem to work that well. But the E.G.G. keeps my produce so fresh and I never have to waste food. I love the E.G.G.!!!
RL, MN 5/15/09