Tomatoes are kind of a big deal in Jacksonville
Tomato Shed owner David Claiborne shares his journey as a fourth generation vegetable grower
By Michelle Dillon Cherokee County Living
“ You’ ve got my daddy to blame for that,” David Claiborne said of how he got into tomato farming. Claiborne is a fourth-generation vegetable grower.
“ We farmed vegetables – truck farming is what we called it – when we were youngsters,” he said.
Although farming most of his life,
10 Jacksonville Progress | Summer 2025
Claiborne began farming commercially around 1989.
“ I grew some out the back of my house and maybe a little garden plot of about half an acre of tomatoes. It has graduated from there,” he said.“ I was working a public job at first. Tomatoes, when we started, were on the side.
“ After about 1993, that was my last public job and we went totally tomatoes, so to speak.”
Claiborne said he’ s been fortunate enough to make a living through fulltime farming ever since.
“ Vegetable farming, tomatoes and those other products, have sustained us through those years and to this day,” he said.
Along with the tomatoes, Claiborne grows sweet onions, yellow squash, zucchini, hybrid pickling cucumbers and slicing cucumbers.
“ Onions are such a huge sale for