Here in the Central Valley it is tomato time.

As I drove to church services this morning I passed a place where a truck made a bad turn and dropped tomatoes on the road. Thankfully they were mainly on the edge of the road so I didn’t drive through tomatoes.

The picture above is from several years ago, but this is a common site this time of year.

The tomatoes have now ripened and harvest is underway.

As I drove home this afternoon I took a few quick snaps out of the window of the car. Here you can see tomato hoppers waiting to be loaded. The trucks will haul away the full hoppers and bring back the empties to be filled.

I tried to get a picture of the harvester, but the image is blurry. However, you can see that in the fields the tomato hopperss are hauled around by a tractor. The tractor drives along with the harvester while the hoppers are filled and then the tractor takes them to the staging area.

Here are some full hoppers from several years ago. They are just waiting for the truck to haul them off.

These tomatoes will most likely be canned. More than 90% of canned tomatoes are grown in the Central Valley of California. This is just part of the process that ends with canned tomatoes at your local grocery stores. If you buy a can of tomatoes, they may have been grown close to me.

Steven