Aug 7, 2009 4:49 pm US/Pacific
The Scoop: Killer Tomatoes
R.E. Graswich
COMMENTARY (CBS13) ―
It's one of the largest industries in the valley – tomatoes. Those open trucks can create quite the road hazard, but this season they're losing less. I have the scoop on how this year, there isn't as much red hitting the highway.
Time of for the Scoop's annual survey of California's killer tomatoes – those ripe red grenades that go bouncing off tomato trucks during the summer harvest.
We're entering the middle of tomato season right now. I've surveyed roads across Sacramento, Yolo and San Joaquin Counties, and I've found less tomato road kills this summer than ever before.
I asked a representative from the Tomato Growers Association to explain how they keep tomatoes from flying out of the trucks. They did not want to appear on camera.
However, I learned that each tomato truck carries 300,000 tomatoes – about 50,000 pounds of fruit. And I learned the trucks are uncovered because of the trapped heat would stew the tomatoes and because of time – tomatoes go from vine to a can of salsa in less than six hours.
So there you have it – inventories and prices are running about the same as last year, with fewer tomatoes hitting California's roads. Good news.
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