tranum

The label on the tomato carton said “Don’t keep us in the refrigerator - it’s too cold for us in there !” Never noticed that before but I followed their “wishes” and I could tell they had more flavor.

cashs_mom

That's interesting. Come to think of it, the little farm to market where I buy a lot of my produce keeps the tomatoes at room temp. So does Sprouts. I might have to try that.

nativetexan

wow, being a city girl, I'm so uninformed. thanks.

quiltingcandy

I love tomatoes especially at room temperature. But then I think all fruit tastes better at room temperature. My DH always wants to put the tomatoes in the fridge but he found they do stay fresh longer if they are not refrigerated.

Iceblossom

For the last 20 years, my stone fruit guy (peaches, plums, apricots) at the farmer's market also says to never refrigerate them.

My tomatoes are rarely fully ripe when I buy them, usually they sit on a plate in my cupboard until used. Keeping them enclosed helps them ripen better than just being on the counter. You can also put them in a paper bag to help keep the ripening gasses in.

Jingle

I keep my tomatoes on the counter. I don't like cold tomatoes. I have always heard not to refrigerate them.

Stitchnripper

I also don’t refrigerate. And I like room temperature fruit too. I usually just buy what we can eat in a couple of days.

tropit

We never refrigerate our tomatoes, unless they are getting too ripe and we can't get to them that day. Same with fruit, onions, potatoes and avos.

~ C

origamigoldfish

They don't refrigerate tomatoes at all at the grocery stores, although they do come on refrigerated trucks. They typically get offloaded and put on a shelf in the back to ripen, or out on the sales floor if they are already completely orange or red. The produce manager at my local store always saves me a green one if they happen to come in that unripe, because one of my favorite treats is fried green tomato slices on a hamburger.

We never store tomatoes in the fridge here at home...heck we usually don't even store them inside, in garden season. I'm allergic to raw tomatoes, and the smell of too many ripe ones in a small space makes my nose run. We have a picnic table on the north side of the house that the tomatoes get stored on, under an old screen to keep the bugs and birds off.