(ARA) - Summer tomato season is a celebrated but fleeting time of year. For several months each year local produce stands pop up on roadsides and in parking lots, an opportunity for many areas of the country to show off their best locally grown in-season fruits and veggies. For the majority of us, locally-grown tomato season falls during the month of August.

According to tomato.org, more than 1,000 varieties of tomatoes exist. Tomatoes are also the world's most popular fruit. More than 60 million tons of tomatoes are produced per year, 16 million tons more than the second most popular fruit, the banana (apples come in third).

Joe Procacci is a 60-year veteran of the tomato industry, owner of Santa Sweets, Inc., one of the country's largest growers of conventional and organic tomatoes, and is a genuine guru on flavorful tomatoes of all varieties. Procacci also authors a blog called "Tomato Talk," accessible at www.santasweets.blogspot.com.

Procacci started peddling tomatoes during the Great Depression to help his family during trying times. He remembers what winter tomatoes imported from Cuba tasted like, and why they were superior to winter tomatoes in the United States. Since then, he was the first to grow and distribute those tasty little grape tomatoes coast to coast in the United States and Canada. He shares tips with us today on selecting, storing and preparing the perfect tomato this season, as well as into the winter.

* If you're growing tomatoes in your yard, generally speaking, you should pick them when fully mature on the vine. However, a tomato picked at first sign of color ("breaking" from green to red) and ripened at room temperature should be just as tasty as one left to fully mature on the vine.

* If you're selecting a tomato from your local market, choose your tomato based on when you plan to eat it. Having it for dinner that night? Pick the most ripe, red tomato available with a texture somewhere between soft and firm. If you plan to keep them around until later in the week, pick one that still has some ripening up to do. You'll still get the same great flavor by allowing it to ripen off the vine (on a countertop) for a couple of days.

* Never refrigerate tomatoes, especially those that have not fully ripened. Refrigeration causes the tomato to lose flavor.

* Don't select your tomato based on perfect size or shape. Some of the best tomatoes are creviced or ridged (heirloom tomatoes, for example). The most important features to consider are firmness and color when selecting at the market. However, the best way to select tomatoes is by sampling the flavor. If your seller offers slices to try before buying, which many local farmers' markets do, perform your own taste test.

Joe Procacci is not just a tomato expert -- he's a flavor expert. At 80 years old, he continues to travel the globe looking for unusual and tasty tomato varieties to introduce to the United States. Recent journeys have taken him to secret destinations in the Far East, seeking new and innovative tomatoes and other produce.

His research staff developed the UGLYRIPE, the first heirloom style "backyard" tomato that can be grown in the United States year round and shipped nationwide, so that -- for the first time ever -- tomato lovers in most of the country will finally be able to eat delicious, flavorful tomatoes in the middle of winter beginning this year.

So now that celebrated, but "fleeting" summer tomato season won't be so fleeting anymore. Look for heirloom style tomatoes at your local supermarket long after your local outdoor markets and produce stands have closed for the summer, and look forward to that tasty summer tomato goodness during the dreariest winter days.