\n<\/p>\n
Wouldn\u2019t it be great to be able to keep a tomato fresh in its original state for months, rather than making your glut into passata to freeze, or chutney?<\/p>\n
But it is possible if you grow storage tomatoes, a type which can keep for months in a cool, dry situation, says Lucy Hutchings, co-founder with Kate Cotterill of UK heirloom seed company She Grows Veg.<\/p>\n
\u201cStorage tomatoes are incredibly popular in Italy and southern Europe and they haven\u2019t caught on here, but for our shorter summer season they are perfect,\u201d says Hutchings.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cStorage tomatoes are slightly genetically different from your conventional tomato and their gene for self-ripening is much weaker.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you sow them a month or so later than you would your conventional tomatoes, so by the end of the season their fruit is fully developed but not yet ripe.\u201d<\/p>\n Storage tomatoes tend to be harder than conventional tomatoes, with firmer flesh and firmer skin, she explains.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause they ripen really slowly, their sugars develop slowly, so by the time you eat them many varieties are really sweet,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means that you can either cook with them or have them fresh. Some varieties will be better for cooking and some will be better eaten fresh. It tends to be that the longer they store, the less succulent they are.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the longest storing ones, those which store up to a year, are best for cooking. Their skin is tougher, their flesh is firmer and they are usually quite meaty \u2013 a lot of flesh rather than a lot of juice.\u201d<\/p>\n You\u2019ll have to sow them from seed \u2013 purchasing the seed from specialist seed companies \u2013 as you\u2019re unlikely to be able to buy them as plants from garden centres, she notes.<\/p>\n How do you grow them?<\/strong><\/p>\n Grow them pretty much like regular tomatoes, Hutchings advises.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the fruit is swelling or has swelled, water as little as possible because you want the skins to toughen up, as it helps with the storage time. So water probably less than you would your conventional tomatoes and sow them a bit later. Other than that, they look and grow exactly as a standard indeterminate tomato.\u201d<\/p>\n Storage tomatoes tend to be slightly less susceptible to blossom end rot, a common problem, than regular tomatoes, says Hutchings.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are varieties which are developed to be watered less. That\u2019s how they\u2019re traditionally grown in Italy so I think they\u2019ve probably adapted,\u201d she observes.<\/p>\n How do you know when they are ready to harvest?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou are aiming for them to be roughly full-sized but before they have begun to blush, and if some of the ones on the truss are a bit smaller, that\u2019s fine. It doesn\u2019t matter. They\u2019ll probably ripen up anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you want is for most of the tomatoes on that truss to be ripe and you can harvest gradually, so you don\u2019t have to take all the tomatoes off in one go.\u201d<\/p>\n How do you store them?<\/strong><\/p>\n Take all the trusses of tomatoes off the plant and string them together into a big bunch, so it looks like an enormous bunch of grapes but the tomatoes are still green, Hutchings advises.<\/p>\n \u201cThen you can hang them up somewhere cool and dry and ideally out of direct sunlight and they will very slowly ripen through the winter. Different varieties have different speeds at which they ripen, but it means that you can realistically be eating your own home-grown tomatoes all through winter, which is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n Which varieties should you choose?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cA great starter one is called \u2018Hanging Prince\u2019 (medium-sized fruits), which will last for easily three months, if not more. I\u2019ve currently got some that I harvested in August, still very much on the go,\u201d says Hutchings.<\/p>\n Other medium sized storage varieties include \u2018Long Keeper\u2019, while the original storage tomato is \u2018Piennolo del Vesuvio\u2019, a little plum type, plus \u2018Giallorossa di Crispiano\u2019 that will store for at least six months, she says.<\/p>\n