Refrigerating Tomatoes

Supposed to be a big no no right? Supposed to make the skins wrinkle and the inside fruit become mealy in texture right?

My mother in law ALWAYS refrigerates tomatoes and they ALWAYS taste amazing. So I try it. And mine come out wrinkled and mealy.

I FINALLY ask her how in the world she is able to refrigerate her tomatoes and have them still taste so amazing. She told me the secret. I tried it, it works! So I am passing the secret along. And FYI this has been tried and tested on Roma tomatoes only so far. She doesn't buy any other kind, and I haven't experimented with any other kind so far.

The SECRET: 1) take the tomatoes out of the bag so they are loose in the crisper.
2) add loose apples to the crisper with the tomatoes.

She doesn't keep any other fruit or veggies in that crisper. It helps that most refrigerators come with two crispers.

Also I've never seen her put a cut up tomato back in the fridge. But they taste so good you'll eat the whole thing ;)

It really does work! The tomatoes last longer then if they were sitting out. They taste crisp and cold and delicious. Bonus, no fruit flies.

I recall a science experiment I did for school back in the day. I had observed that my mom always put an apple in the large sack of potatoes she would buy. I asked her why and she told me the apple emits some sort of gas? that keeps the potatoes from sprouting roots so they last longer. SO I tried it. I had one sack of potatoes without an apple and one sack of potatoes with an apple. It really did work, the control group, after some time, sprouted roots. The experimental group with the apple, did not sprout after the same amount of time had passed (I don't remember how long). NOW if you google this fact, you will come across people who say that it makes the potatoes sprout faster. Except I DID this experiment and came with the opposite conclusion. I wonder if they ever bothered doing a scientific experiment with a control group? Probably not. I just found the Martha Stewart agrees with me.

My point, some people claim the apple gas promotes rotting, but in two cases that I've actually tried have worked in keeping the potato and tomato fresh... maybe it's because potato and tomato rhyme? haha, just kidding. My mother in law has been doing the apple/tomato refrigerator thing for about 30 years.