Harvesting Tomatoes

I'm a bit behind on this blog post but I took a lot of photos and still wanted to share it. Do you remember when they planted tomatoes Across the Road in early May? Five months later those tomatoes were ready to harvest.  These are not big juicy table tomatoes on five-foot high plants. They are smaller canning tomatoes that can be mechanically harvested. This is the first time I've seen the  harvester that doesn't have people riding on it while sorting tomatoes. It's all done mechanically.Two tractors run side-by-side. One pulls the bins that hold the tomatoes.The other pulls the harvester.The tomato plants are cut off and pulled up a conveyer where the tomatoes are sorted from the plant and sent through that yellow chute into the bins. Unwanted plant material, including smaller tomatoes come out over the roller towards the base of the harvester.

 Here they are waiting for the next tractor and bins to catch up to the harvester. Is it any wonder that everything in my house is covered with a layer of fine dust.?

 Haresting of this field took a lot longer than I expected. They worked out there 24 hours/day for 2 1/2 days.

A few tomatoes spill out when the truck makes the turn onto the roas.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           This is a photo taken at the end of the harvest.