Friday, January 26, 2007

Meet Joe Procacci

CBS Tampa came by our tomato packing plant yesterday to interview Joe, the man who spent years creating the UGLYRIPE tomato (and then years fighting the Florida Tomato Committee to bring the tomato to the national market). That you know. But many of you haven’t had the chance to meet Joe in person so here he is on camera.

Here’s the news story that ran last night on Tampa Bay 10:
http://www.tampabays10.com/video/news/?aid=37424&sid=48064

You’ll also get a chance to see our packing and distribution facility we have here in Plant City, FL. It’s incredible watching seas of Santa Sweets grape tomatoes floating on sorting line and then washed and packaged and the UGLYRIPE has it’s own packing line. In the coming weeks and months you'll probably be hearing a lot more of this tomato wonderland we call "the packinghouse," since that's where a lot of the action happens on our end. You'll also get to hear from Joe himself and some of his thoughts and insights into the tomato world. We're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and comments as well, so feel free to post them!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool story. Joe seems like a real genuine guy :)

Uglyripes are de-lish! I like the little grape ones too.

Hello from Julia said...

I just heard your interview on CBC. Congratulations! I can't believe they wouldn't let you export them based on how they looked. What a story. I'm going to link this to my blog.

Ralf Wokan said...

And the people in Europe ?
When will we get the UglyRipe ??

I found the news on a German blog:
http://koriander.blogger.de/stories/694403/

And now I am hungry !
with greetings from Portugal
Ralf

Anonymous said...

These are the best-tasting tomatos I have ever had. Thanks for making them available. I live just west of Plant City in Lakeland, and it's great to know these are grown here in the US, and that they are locally packed. I prefer organic produce, so how about an ugly-ripe organic?

I don't know who thinks we (consumers) prefer good-looking tomatos over tasty ones. We buy ones that look ripe, but just because we believe it would taste the best too. This tomato should be labeled as best-tasting, and it should be available in other states.

sesamegirl said...

them tomatoes tasted good, but i ain't gone buy no more cause they high on they price.