Storing Tomatoes Short Term

[TechGuy]

I created a cool box to store vegetables using a standup freezer and a Raspberry Pi computer. Originally I planned on storing potatoes in it but quickly realized the need for a tomato cooler.

Since tomatoes should not be stored below 55 deg F I set my freezer to come on when it gets above 60 def F for safety cushion. I monitor the internal temp and humidity on a web site and my temp stays within a degree or two. I just started selling at the local farmers market and it has helped me hold tomatoes until the next market day. So far flavor has been good and texture good too.

I wonder how other small farmers and restaurants are storing tomatoes to avoid chilling injury. I would think even an avid gardener would want to hold tomatoes until they have enough to can too.

I wrote a how-to on building my tomato storing system

Would love to know how others are storing tomatoes

[bower]

Very cool system, TechGuy!
We don't get the heat like you do, so we use low tech cooling - real root cellars for long term storage of potatoes etc. but as you said, for market once a week tomatoes need to be stored a little cool - below 70 F for sure. I have a root cellar under my porch, and a cool room in my basement that stays below 70 which I use for tomato triage when there are too many at once for home eating or when I have surplus to sell a few days later.

At my friend's farm, the packing shed has a walk in cooler which really stays cool all summer - 60 F or a few degrees less is my guess for midsummer. The front room where veggies are washed, lettuce spun and packed etcetera is also fairly cool in all weather, and was accomplished by design of the builder. There is a window on the north side that gives enough light for washing and packing but doesn't collect heat. The building is also quite surrounded by trees on two sides which limit solar gain from the south. The floor is cement, and the walk in cooler has cement walls which are insulated and a proper freezer door that latches. Tomatoes that are fully ripe before CSA or market day are held in the cooler, and tomatoes that are not fully ripe are kept in the packing area which is still less than 70 F but warmer than the cooler.

[gorbelly]

For canning, I just throw my tomatoes into the freezer. But I don't do it until they're at peak ripeness. The canning/cooking process destroys a lot of subtleties of flavor anyway, so I don't get too bothered about what the freezing will do.

Likewise, if I have too many tomatoes but want to keep them for fresh eating, I wait until they're at peak ripeness and then put them in the fridge to stretch out a few more days of good eating quality. As long as I let them sit out and come back to room temp before eating them, they taste great. While cold during ripening can affect final flavor quite a bit, I'm skeptical that, once fully ripe, cold does much except what cold always does, i.e., dampen our ability to detect the aromas of volatile compounds that give food much of its flavor. But that's about us, not about permanent, harmful changes to the tomato, it seems, and it can be fixed by making sure the food we're eating isn't cold.

[brownrexx]

Storing potatoes in the refrigerator will cause them to convert their starches to sugars but I have never heard what refrigeration supposedly does to the flavor of tomatoes. I also store them in the refrigerator once they get too ripe on the counter and allow them to return to room temperature before eating.

I don't know if refrigeration makes an actual difference in the chemical composition of the tomato like it does with potatoes.

[KarenO]

I think you have a good idea. Temperature control at not below 55 degrees would be a good way to extend the shelf life in your freezer conversion without causing appreciable quality of flavour problems.
Kitchen fridges are much colder, 3-4 degrees Celsius or 40 degrees F or less.
There is a big difference. Certainly if the fruit will rot before they can be used at room temp then refrigeration is preferable to rotting. I think only an experienced and selective tomato nut such as me (Tomatoville types) would note a difference in flavour subtleties anyway.
Certainly to use in canning recipes with spices, salt or other ingredients it wouldn't be noticed.

[TechGuy]

thanks for the details bower. not a lot of root cellars in southeast us- wish I had one

[bower]

Root cellars were an absolute necessity here until the 50's (and beyond, in some places) to store food for the winter. So there's a long history of building them in many ways. Some cool pictures of root cellars in Elliston, NL.. these are the traditional model built into the side of a hill.
http://www.rootcellars.com/
The amount of rock in the environment here is certainly useful, but nowadays you don't even need a natural hill - build it in a day with a backhoe. Going underground is also a lot less work with the machines, and making a little staircase down to a door would be just as nice as the hillside ones.
Or there's always the modern design approach, like mine. Concrete, underground, under a porch on the north side of the house, access by ladder. The root cellar at my friend's farm is the same, access by ladder and the hatch is inside a tiny outbuilding made for that purpose.
Gotta say it though, the access by ladder fairly sucks. And it's worse when you're into farm quantities and rockin big bags up through a narrow trap door.

There is no tech required to keep the temperatures as they should be in these structures as long as the hatches are closed, so functionally they work perfectly afaict. BUT being handy with the tech yourself, no doubt you would set up a monitoring system and find out exactly how well it works or how to tweak it. Nothing wrong with that either!
actually, here is a better link to the information about Elliston's famous collection of cellars.
http://www.townofelliston.ca/2at/rootcellars.html