Care to join me in fresh tomato storage experiment this year?

ClareBroommaker's picture

I read about this Burundi tomato farmer who says he can store ripe tomatoes for as long as six months in screened wood ash. I'm sceptical but will try it this summer or fall. Anyone care to join me and compare notes?

http://wire.farmradio.fm/en/farmer-stories/2016/11/burundi-farmer-finds-...

ggf's picture

What an excellent find!

I'm definitely going to try this next year.

ClareBroommaker's picture

Is anyone trying this yet? I have not had a single tomato. We're having some cooler weather now so maybe some flowers will be able to pollinate. At least there are plenty of leaves to support a lot of fruit. I still intend to try saving some in ash.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

Are there any updates on this experiment? I'm not participating myself for lack of tomatoes. My tomatoes did not do well this year so there was no Fall surplus to experiment with.

ClareBroommaker's picture

Nope. Yet another year has gone by. Somebody please tell me in August next year when our tomatoes are at their best to DO this!

ClareBroommaker's picture

My tomatoes finally produced, but I forgot about this experiment even after bringing it up in August. I have three pounds of paste tomatoes still, so I could at least try it with three to five of them. I'll try to pick the better looking ones to do it with. Will get some ash from my friend tomorrow.

At this point it wont be a very extensive experiment. I hope someone else can still try it.

We ate many tomato based meals as they came in and also canned (high energy input) both quartered tomatoes and juice.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

Any Updates Clare?

ClareBroommaker's picture

Well, uh, --hem-haw-- I set aside a few tomatoes to put in ash. My husband saw them sitting on my desk and grabbed them to put into dinner one night. So a whole year went by without my actually trying this. Sorry, folks.

Sweet Tatorman's picture

OK, Hubby got the blame for the 2017 crop year. Any experimentation and results to report since?

Magpie's picture

I was very excited to try, but some untimely rains completely wiped out my tomatoes. They looked ok, but they were sacks of fermenting yeasty goop which exploded when I tried to cut them open. Alas!

It's the end of winter here now, so I won't be able to try again for a while. Best of luck!

ClareBroommaker's picture

Hmmm, tomato wine? Ha-ha, I know what you mean though. Cherry tomatoes seem to do that very easily. I've popped a few alcohol bearing tomatoes in my mouth while in the garden.

ClareBroommaker's picture
Magpie's picture

This sounds awesome. The first of my cherry tomatoes are just getting ripe (everything is late this summer because the weather has been horrible, but we finally have warm days and sun!) The place I moved to has a wood fireplace, so I have a handy source of ash as well. I will definitely try to give this a go and let you guys know how things go. After storing my garden pumpkin for 6 months, and apples for 4 months, I'm feeling prepared for a new challenge!

I've got two Halloween pumpkins (sugar baby, pie pumpkins) sitting on the front porch that're still good, but I don't think that's a reliable method

Magpie's picture

We had a south-facing room (that'd be the opposite from the sun, as this is the southern hemisphere) which was frigid at all times of year. In the winter, wasn't uncommon for it to be 8-10C inside, and I'm not sure it reached 17C even in the hight of summer. We dried the pumpkin first by placing it in a basket on a table, so it had good air flow for a month or so, then put it in our dark storage cupboard. That's it! The room didn't get too damp, as we had good ventilation (which is coincidentally why it was so cold), so we didn't have mold problems. We only stored pumpkins that had no damage (check for oozing sores--these pumpkins can still be stored, but only for 1-3 months)