Fruit firmness is usually treated as a trait that is lost during ripening, but new evidence shows that part of the story begins much earlier, while the fruit is still building its structure. The study identifies the basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor VSF-1 as a positive regulator of tomato firmness during development. Removing the VSF-1 gene softened fruit, whereas increasing VSF-1 activity strengthened it.