- 7 minutes ago
Keep tomatoes delicious beyond harvest with simple storage tips—and learn why no method keeps a fresh tomato for two years. This practical guide shares traditional advice for sorting ripe and firm tomatoes, storing them stem-side up in a cool, shaded, airy place, and using a tiny dab of oil on the stem scar to help firm fruit last a little longer.
For longer-term tomato preservation, discover safe canning basics, including why measured acid and a trusted tested recipe are essential. The guide also covers drying ripe tomatoes for winter cooking and explains the difference between fresh storage and preserved tomatoes. A useful watch for gardeners, home cooks, and anyone interested in food preservation, reducing kitchen waste, and old-fashioned harvest storage.
For longer-term tomato preservation, discover safe canning basics, including why measured acid and a trusted tested recipe are essential. The guide also covers drying ripe tomatoes for winter cooking and explains the difference between fresh storage and preserved tomatoes. A useful watch for gardeners, home cooks, and anyone interested in food preservation, reducing kitchen waste, and old-fashioned harvest storage.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a thing you bring home from the garden or the market near every week of the warm season.
00:05Beautiful, red, sound as anything the day you buy it.
00:09And within just a few short days, half of it is soft, wrinkled, bloomed with gray mold, and fit for
00:16nothing but the hens.
00:18You did nothing wrong.
00:19You set it down the very way everyone sets it down.
00:23And that, it turns out, is exactly the trouble.
00:25For this is one of the most delicate, most hurried, most quickly wasted things in your whole kitchen.
00:32And almost nobody has ever been told how to truly keep it.
00:36But the old folk kept it, scarcely lost a one.
00:40And not for a few days longer, but for the whole year round, all the way to the next harvest,
00:45as sweet in the deep of winter as the day it was picked.
00:49They did it with no special thing, no machine, nothing you do not already have.
00:54Only the understanding of what this thing truly is, and three plain secrets that pull against the two enemies, forever
01:01trying to spoil it.
01:03So before I tell you what it is, though I think you will guess before long, stay with me, for
01:09there is one part of this I must give you very carefully indeed.
01:13Done the careless way that half the videos show you, it can make you genuinely, dangerously sick.
01:20Done the old, careful way, it fills your cellar shelf with summer and feeds you clear through the cold.
01:26That one difference is worth the whole of your attention.
01:30Quick word before we go further.
01:32My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me, the kind I am sharing today,
01:38and a great many more besides, are far more than I could ever fit into one video.
01:43I have gathered the whole of them into a book, and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
01:49If today's tips serve you, that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught me lives, all
01:55in the one place.
01:56Now to it.
01:57And here it is, the thing itself, the tomato.
02:00That beautiful, hopeless, quick-to-spoil tomato.
02:05My grandmother grew them by the hundred and lost scarcely a one, and she taught me their secret standing over
02:10a brimming basket.
02:12Esther, she said, a tomato has two enemies, and they pull against each other.
02:17It hurries to ripen and go soft, and it loves the damp that breeds the mold.
02:22Keep it cool to slow its hurry, keep it dry and airy to starve the mold, and keep the ripe
02:28away from the firm.
02:30Mind those three, and your basket will not waste.
02:33Hold what a tomato is, for the whole of this grows from it.
02:37Like the banana and the apple, a ripe tomato breathes out that ripening gas, and it both ripens itself and
02:44hurries along every tomato touching it.
02:46So a soft, ripe one in among firm green ones drags the whole basket down with it.
02:52And a tomato's skin is thin and its flesh is wet, so the damp and the warmth together breed mold
02:58on it faster than on almost any fruit.
03:01Slow the hurry, starve the mold, part the ripe from the firm.
03:05Now here is how, step by step, from the shortest keeping to the longest.
03:10First, for the tomatoes you mean to eat this week or the next, keep them the plain old way, and
03:16they will hold far longer than on a bare counter.
03:19Sort them first.
03:20This is the step most folks skip, and it is the one that saves the basket.
03:24Part the firm, underripe tomatoes from the soft, fully red ones, and keep them in two separate places.
03:30The ripe ones breathe out the ripening gas that will rush the firm ones to softness, so keep them apart,
03:37and eat the ripe first.
03:39The firm green ones, kept on their own, ripen slow and keep for a good while.
03:44Keep them stem side up, not down, and never touching close.
03:48A little air around each one.
03:50The stem scar is the soft spot where the mold first creeps in, so turning it up keeps it dry
03:56and whole.
03:57Set them in a single layer in a shallow basket or a wicker tray, not heaped in a bowl where
04:02the ones beneath are pressed and the air goes stale.
04:05If you must layer them, lay a sheet of soft paper between the layers so they do not bruise and
04:11the air still moves.
04:12And set that basket in a cool, airy, shaded spot.
04:15Never the sunny windowsill, which cooks them soft, and never right by the hot stove.
04:21A tomato does not want the biting cold, mind.
04:24The deep cold of an icebox dulls its sweetness and turns the flesh mealy,
04:29which is why a store-bought tomato kept cold tastes of nothing.
04:32It wants the gentle, steady cool of a pantry shelf or a cellar stair.
04:38Cool, but not cold.
04:39Dry, airy, stem up, ripe apart from firm.
04:44And a basket that would have wasted in three days holds a week, and the firm ones, two.
04:50Here is a clever old one for holding a firm tomato a little longer yet, with nothing but a drop
04:56of oil.
04:56The stem scar, where the tomato parted from the vine, is the one open door in its skin,
05:02the way the air and the mold get in.
05:05So we seal that door.
05:07Take a firm, sound tomato, stem scar up, and with your fingertip or a scrap of cloth,
05:13dab the thinnest touch of plain cooking oil over just the stem scar, only there, and only a whisper of
05:20it.
05:20When it dries, it forms a fine film over that open spot,
05:24shutting out the air and the mold spores that would enter there.
05:28Set its stem up in your cool, airy place,
05:31and it will hold plump and sweet a good few days past its usual, the skin unwrinkled.
05:37Use only the barest touch, mind.
05:39Slather it on, and you smother the fruit, and it softens the faster.
05:43A drop, no more, on the scar alone.
05:46Now the long keeping, the jars on the cellar shelf that carry your summer tomatoes,
05:51clear through to next summer.
05:52And here, listen close, for this is the part I promise to give you carefully,
05:58because a tomato is not like a plain acid fruit,
06:01and put up careless, it can make you truly sick.
06:04Here is the thing you must understand, and that the careless videos never tell you.
06:09A low-acid food, sealed in a jar without enough acid,
06:13can grow a hidden poison, botulism,
06:16that you cannot see, cannot smell, cannot taste, and that can kill.
06:20And a tomato sits right on the edge.
06:23It is only just acid enough,
06:25and many a modern tomato is not acid enough on its own
06:29to be safely put up in a plain jar.
06:31So the whole safety of canning a tomato rests on one thing.
06:35You must add acid to the jar, every time, without fail.
06:40That is not a flavoring.
06:41That is the very thing that keeps the poison from growing.
06:44Vinegar, or lemon juice, added in the proper measure,
06:48is what makes a jar of tomatoes safe to keep.
06:51So the old careful way runs like this.
06:53You wash your firm, sound tomatoes,
06:56no bruised or spoiled ones,
06:58for one bad tomato spoils the jar,
07:00and pack them gently into clean jars,
07:03with a clove or two of garlic,
07:05and a few peppercorns,
07:06and a sprig of herb if you like.
07:08Then you make your brine.
07:10Water, salt, a little sugar, boiled up.
07:13And here is the step you never skip.
07:16You add your measured acid,
07:17the vinegar or the lemon juice, to each jar.
07:21Pour the boiling brine over the tomatoes to cover them well.
07:24Wipe the rim clean so the lid will seal true,
07:27and cap each jar with a clean new lid.
07:30Now, a tomato with enough acid added
07:32can be put up in a boiling water bath.
07:34The jar is set in a deep pot,
07:36covered with boiling water,
07:38and boiled the full time a trusted canning chart
07:41gives for tomatoes and your size of jar.
07:44Do not guess the time,
07:45and do not guess the acid.
07:47Follow a tested, trusted recipe
07:49for the exact amounts and the exact minutes.
07:52A proper canning guide,
07:54not a stranger's loose say-so,
07:56for with a tomato,
07:57those amounts are the whole of the safety.
07:59When the jars cool,
08:01the lids should pull down tight and stay.
08:03Press the center,
08:04and it should not spring back.
08:06A jar whose lid did not seal,
08:08or that later bulges or hisses
08:10or smells wrong when you open it,
08:12that one you do not taste and do not save.
08:15You throw it out, jar and all,
08:17well away from any mouth.
08:19That is the one rule that never bends.
08:21Sealed true and kept in a cool, dark cellar,
08:24those jars will hold a year and more.
08:26And here is what to do
08:27when the garden gives you more ripe tomatoes at once
08:30than you could ever eat
08:31and faster than you can jar.
08:33For a glut of ripe tomatoes
08:35is the happy trouble of every August.
08:38And the old folk had a lovely answer for it.
08:40They dried them.
08:42Cut your ripe tomatoes in half
08:43or in quarters if they are large
08:45and lay them cut side up on a rack or a clean cloth.
08:49Salt them lightly.
08:50The salt draws the water out
08:52and helps keep them while they dry.
08:54And set them to dry slow
08:56in the sun of a hot, dry day,
08:58bringing them in of a night
09:00so the dew does not undo your work,
09:02or in the last gentle warmth of the cook stove
09:05as the fire dies down.
09:07It takes a day or two in good sun,
09:09for you are driving nearly all the water out of them.
09:12When they are dry and leathery,
09:14but still a little pliable, they are done.
09:16Keep them in a clean jar
09:18and for a finer keep still,
09:20cover the dried tomatoes
09:22with a little oil in the jar.
09:23The oil shuts out the air
09:25and holds them for months
09:26and they come out sweet and deep
09:29and rich as any delicacy,
09:31wonderful in the winter cooking.
09:33A glut need never be wasted.
09:35It can be dried down
09:36to a jar of concentrated summer.
09:39And now the honest word,
09:41for I always give it
09:43and this one matters.
09:44You will have seen it promised
09:46that these tricks keep a tomato fresh
09:48for two whole years.
09:49I will tell you plain,
09:51they do not,
09:52and no trick on this earth does.
09:54A fresh tomato on your shelf,
09:56kept the best way I know,
09:58holds days, a week,
09:59two at the most for the firm ones.
10:01That is a fine and useful thing,
10:04but it is days and weeks,
10:05not years.
10:06The year and more belongs only to the jar,
10:09to the tomatoes properly put up
10:11with their acid and their seal,
10:13which are no longer fresh tomatoes at all,
10:15but preserved ones,
10:17soft and brined and changed,
10:19lovely for your sauces
10:20and your winter stews,
10:22but not a fruit you would slice onto a plate.
10:24So do not be fooled by the promise
10:27of a fresh tomato two years on.
10:29Keep your fresh ones well
10:30for their week or two,
10:32and put the rest up in jars for the year,
10:34and know the honest difference
10:36between the two.
10:37Fresher longer on the shelf,
10:39a year and more in the jar,
10:40and never, ever a fresh tomato kept two years,
10:44whatever anyone tells you.
10:46And let me set it in the larger truth,
10:48for it has the shape you know.
10:50Think how a tomato reaches most tables now,
10:53bought hard and pale in the dead of winter,
10:55grown far away and shipped cold,
10:58picked green and gassed red,
11:00with scarcely a taste of summer left in it,
11:02and bought fresh again every single week.
11:05It is no plot and no one schemed it.
11:07It is only that a tomato you must buy fresh
11:10every week, all year round,
11:12is a tomato sold to you 50 times over,
11:15while a seller shelf of your own summer tomatoes,
11:18put up in August at their cheapest and sweetest,
11:21and eaten all the winter through,
11:23is bought but the once,
11:24from the garden or the farm stand,
11:26and never again.
11:28There is no trade in a full seller.
11:30So the weekly pale tomato gets the shelf,
11:33and the old art of putting up your own summer
11:35gets quietly let slip.
11:37The year round fresh tomato is what they sell.
11:40The jars of summer on the seller shelf
11:42are what the old folks simply kept,
11:44and ate like sunshine in the depth of the cold.
11:47So there is the whole of it,
11:49from the week to the year.
11:50For the fresh ones,
11:52sort the ripe from the firm and keep them apart,
11:55stem side up,
11:56in a single airy layer,
11:58cool and shaded but never cold,
12:00and a dab of oil on the stem scar
12:03to hold a firm one longer.
12:04For the long keep,
12:06pack them in jars,
12:07and never ever forget the measured acid,
12:10the vinegar or the lemon,
12:11that alone makes a canned tomato safe.
12:14Follow a trusted recipe for the amounts and the times,
12:17seal them true,
12:18and throw out without a taste
12:20any jar that bulges or smells wrong.
12:23fresher for weeks on the shelf,
12:24a year and more in the cellar.
12:26Now, I want to hear from you.
12:28Tell me down below,
12:30which county are you watching from,
12:31and how old is the house you keep?
12:33The old houses with a true cool cellar
12:36are the ones that keep a year of jars the best,
12:39and I should love to know who still has one.
12:42And tell me,
12:43do you put up your own tomatoes,
12:45the way your mother or grandmother did?
12:47Or have you only ever bought them pale from the store?
12:51For I read every word.
12:53It is a quiet kind of wealth,
12:55is it not,
12:56to go down to a cool cellar
12:58in the dead of January
12:59and bring up a jar of your own summer tomatoes,
13:03sweet and red and waiting,
13:05put up with your own hands,
13:07with care,
13:07and with the acid that keeps them safe,
13:10at no cost but an August afternoon.
13:13The old folk ate that way the winter long
13:15and never thought it any hardship.
13:18We very nearly traded it all
13:20for a pale thing in a plastic box,
13:22but it is a plain old wisdom still,
13:25and it is a thing, I think,
13:27we are only just starting to remember.