Famine, Saturday, Hay 20,1571
Area egg processor subject of consumer film
By JOANNESPAHR
PARADISE - Robert
Trout, his mother, and two
sisters always knew their
family-run egg processing
business was special - at
least to them. But, just
recently they had the
pleasure of finding out that
someone else thought a lot of
it, as well. In fact, this
person went so far as to
make it the subject of a
radio/television program
which will be nationally
syndicated and shown in
such cities as Los Angeles,
St. Louis, Dallas, and
Jackson, Miss.
That person was Gene
Crane, television personality
with WCAU TV in
Philadelphia. Two weeks
ago Crane, his wife, and a
video tape crew made a trek
to the quaint town of
Paradise, Pa. specifically to
study the E. Roy Trout &
Son, Inc., company and to
make a two minute tape of
egg processing.
camera crew.
“This has nothing to do
with Acme Markets or with
WCAU,” Crane stated in an
interview conducted prior to
taping. Instead, the film is a
consumer affairs program
produced and syndicated by
Alcare Communications,
Wayne, Pa. for which Crane
works on a free lance basis,
crane researches, writes,
and produces consumer
oriented programs which
are two minutes long each.
However, even though the
programs are only a few
minutes long, the time in
volved in producing them
can amount to as much as a
whole day.
In the case of Trout Eggs,
Crane spent from about
10:30 a.m. to noon taping the
program. His specific area
of interest was processing,
only. He and his two-man
crew taped the procedure of
washing, drying, inspecting,
sizing and packaging eggs on
the line.
Out of sight, behind the
, v sT* ' v
W s
&■ 4 >
. v&Sf "
’< i $
Getting ready to begin taping are (left to right) two members of Crane’s camera crew, Robert
Trout, and Gene Crane.
cameras, Crane threw behind the scenes. Trout’s
questions at Robert Trout mother, Mrs. Flossie Trout,
concerning the procedures Paradise R 2, is a fourth
involved in processing a case member in this family-run
of eggs in one minute. Trout, business,
standing midst egg According to Crane, the
processing equipment,' purpose of the film he was
fielded questions that dealt making at the Trout
with ounces, weight, sizes, operation was to teach
andqualityof eggsas wellas consumers about the
the differences between grading of eggs. He had
brown and white eggs, gotten the idea from his wife.
During this question and who, in their travels, had
answer period, the camera taken notice that egg cartons
was trained on the family contained eggs of different
businessman. *sizes, and had wondered
While the taping was
taking place, the camera
crew monitored their
portable color closed circuit
television set. At one point a
piece of machinery created
an interference, and part of
the show was reshot.
Trout, unrattled by the
duplication, patiently
repeated his answers.
The whole time the taping
was going on, Trout’s
sisters, Mrs. Clara Rineer
and Mrs. Helen Beecher,
who also are part of the
business, gave support from
■s’*
I
about the variance and how
much is actually permitted.
Once he had the idea.
Crane began scouting
around for an egg processing
plant he could work with. He
came up with the Trout
business when an outlet
-4c
•v
1 >
store manager who handles
Trout eggs in Upper Darby,
gave Crane the family’s
name.
Needless to say, the Trouts
were “delighted” at the
prospect of Crane coming to
their business. Along with
giving Crane full
cooperation, they also
bought him a hand painted
picture created by a local
artist and took Crane and his
wife and crew to dinner at
Harvest Drive Farm Motel
and Restaurant.
Plus, during the taping
session, nobody went hungry
since Trouts handed out
“eggs on a stick” to
everyone who cared to in
dulge. An egg on a stick is a
product Trout sells at their
outlet stand at Bird-In-Hand
market. The delicacies
consists of a red beet egg or
“Golden egg” on a stick.
“They weren’t used to this
special treatment,” noted
Trout. “But, I just told them
it was normal for Penn
sylvania Dutch Country.”
The Trout family business
has been in operation for 50
years and in that time has
won awards including the
NEPPCO award, best of
show in 1977. They are also
Farm Show award winners.
Unfortunately, Penn
sylvanias living in the
southeastern part of the
Commonwealth may not get
to see the film featuring this
company since it will not be
aired in Philadelphia.