For five generations, fruit waste had been a challenge for the Seaside Farm family, tomato growers on Saint Helena Island, S.C. More than 20 million pounds of tomatoes are harvested during a five- to six-week period each year and sold to restaurateurs and local grocers mostly along the East Coast. Until a couple of years ago, the family paid contractors to dispose of the 2 million pounds of tomatoes that wouldn’t last the trip to market.
Mac Sanders, the patriarch of the tomato harvesting family, says, “We found a way to preserve a significant portion of our crop; we hate to waste a beautiful, ripe tomato. Now we turn it into profit. Clayton Industries’ steam generator gave us the ability to process up to fifteen 400-gallon batches of flavorful tomatoes per day during peak season. Great fruit we otherwise would have thrown away, we now use for a line of new products.”