Warren - The Pink Tomato Festival is in full swing in Warren this week, but the pink tomato was being shipped out of southeast Arkansas long before the festival.

In the 1920's--before the days when you could go to a nursery and buy a tomato plant--Pete Johnson's family helped bring tomato-growing to Arkansas.

(Pete Johnson, Tomato Pioneer) “It was my job--and my brother’s--to make sure we went to the hot beds in the night, to check the fire. You have to have heat for the seed to germinate.”

From the hot beds, Pete's family moved to the cold frame—then to the fields. And by the 1930's, they were growing enough tomatoes to supply all the Safeway grocery stores in Arkansas.

When other growers wanted Pete's family to sell their tomatoes, Pete's dad found other markets--and a job for Pete.

(Johnson) “He said, ‘Pete, do you think you could go to Kansas City by yourself?’ Like any 17 year old boy I said ’Yes.’ Not knowing how tiresome it would get.”

Pete says he got about $3 for 25 pounds of tomatoes back then. He has long since gotten out of the tomato business, but still grows them on a small plot in his backyard in Bryant.

His plants come from Bradley County, and his tomatoes are what Arkansas knows as the ‘pink tomato.’ He has a connection to that, too.

Pete says Drew County was shipping tomatoes before Bradley County--but, they shipped them green.

(Johnson) “So, my dad said to these other two fellows, ‘Let's let them get pink before we move,’ which they did. So it was the pink tomato from then on.”

And the rest is history. Thousands flock to Warren every year for the Pink Tomato Festival--and Pete's one of them. He says he takes pride knowing he played a part in the beginnings of a world-renowned business.

(Johnson) “See on the highways, see the trucks passing me. Yeah, that's something that I helped get started.”

If you'd like to nominate someone to be the Arkansan of the Week, send an e-mail to scottinman@katv.com.

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