box the tomatoes for public sale.
“ Within a few years, we were just selling boxes and boxes of canning tomatoes and culled tomatoes,” he said.“ Then we decided we should open up a retail operation there in front of the Shed and make all of our products available to the public.”
Claiborne said people come from all over Texas and even adjacent states to get Jacksonville tomatoes. He said people use them for canning and salsa.
“ Tomatoes are still kind of a big thing around Jacksonville,” he said. Since 1998, Claiborne has also provided tomatoes to Tomato Fest for its tomato-based contests – tomato eating, tomato packing, tomato peeling and the diced competition hosted during the week prior to Tomato Fest.
Claiborne is also a vendor at the Tomato Fest so anyone visiting the
event can purchase the locally produced tomatoes and vegetables. For those wondering, he said this year’ s crop looks good.
“ I think there will be tons of tomatoes for the Tomato Fest,” he said.
But Jacksonville isn’ t the only place Claiborne’ s tomatoes can be found.
“ Reaching out, we market to in excess of 40 Brookshire’ s supermarkets and then also HEB Central Market in the metroplex. We have six of those stores,” he said.
Having farmed tomatoes for a better part of his life, one might wonder how he prefers to eat tomatoes.
“ On a sandwich, sliced on a sandwich – that’ s the best,” Claiborne said. More specifically, he said he preferred them on a ham or bologna sandwich with mayonnaise, or on a BLT. When asked about his favorite tomato-based recipe, Claiborne said he liked tomatoes stuffed with tuna or chicken salad.
“ You open that thing up and stuff it and it’ s good that way,” he said.“ You can do a lot with tomatoes.”
When he isn’ t tending to farming business, Claiborne and his wife, Carrie, attend Remnant Community Fellowship in Mixon.
He also likes to spend time with their son, Austin, drag racing. He said they drag race at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, and at Texas Motorplex at Ennis.
“ We do some traveling with the National Hot Rod Association super street circuit that Austin is involved in, so we do travel a little bit and follow that circuit,” Claiborne said.
When asked what else the public should know about him, Claiborne said,“ I try to keep a low profile, most farmers do.”
Summer 2025 | Jacksonville Progress 13