RobS
Super Member
I have a question of curiosity about tomatoes, and this likely applies to many other seasonal crops.
Not far from me are a lot of tomato fields (SW MI). A few weeks back, I was driving by and saw the harvesting. Interesting process, I should have taken a couple of photos. Bottom line, the tomatoes are loaded into semi-trailers with 2 large, shallow "gondolas" per trailer. That would make them about 20' long, 8' wide and maybe 3' high.
Also not far from me, in the other direction is Red Gold, a tomato processing company in Elwood, IN. Also a few weeks back, I was on US31 headed north and saw a pretty steady stream of the tomato trucks headed towards Elwood.
So here's my question: Given that the tomato crop all comes in over a few weeks, and comes in huge volume, how do they handle that at the plant? Does it only operate for a few weeks a year or are they able to store the tomatoes to extend the processing window?
Thanks in advance!
Not far from me are a lot of tomato fields (SW MI). A few weeks back, I was driving by and saw the harvesting. Interesting process, I should have taken a couple of photos. Bottom line, the tomatoes are loaded into semi-trailers with 2 large, shallow "gondolas" per trailer. That would make them about 20' long, 8' wide and maybe 3' high.
Also not far from me, in the other direction is Red Gold, a tomato processing company in Elwood, IN. Also a few weeks back, I was on US31 headed north and saw a pretty steady stream of the tomato trucks headed towards Elwood.
So here's my question: Given that the tomato crop all comes in over a few weeks, and comes in huge volume, how do they handle that at the plant? Does it only operate for a few weeks a year or are they able to store the tomatoes to extend the processing window?
Thanks in advance!