Tomato: know, sow, grow, feast is a new hardback book celebrating Australian heirloom tomatoes. These colourful heritage gems are full to bursting with juicy deliciousness and are enjoying a renaissance in Australia today. Inspired by this, horticultural expert and author, Penny Woodward thought it timely to create this book brimming with information about heirloom tomatoes, so that tomato lovers throughout Australia could identify, learn to grow and enjoy them. Tomato explains why a ‘red tomato is red’, why ‘real tomatoes’ taste so good, and why tomatoes are so ‘good for you’.
The book also leads both experienced and aspiring gardeners through the practice of organic heirloom tomato growing and explores the history of heirloom tomato varieties in Australia. The book also provides, for the first time, a comprehensive description and extensive illustrated list of the more than 220 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes available from seed suppliers in Australia today. What also sets Tomato apart, is the book’s extensive list and description of heirloom tomato pests and diseases, painstakingly researched by gardening expert Karen Sutherland, that includes an indispensable pest and disease chart to help gardeners identify and control them. Uniquely too, for a gardening book, Tomato includes a substantial dedicated cooking and recipe section, where internationally award-winning cookbook author, Janice Sutton, explains not only how to preserve tomatoes and create the perfect tomato passatta, but also delves into the enticing realm of heirloom tomato variety flavours.
The cooking section also contains more than 60 delicious recipes (each with its own beautiful full-page image) shared by a raft of talented chefs, cooks and passionate tomato lovers from throughout Australia and beyond – including some of Australia’s most respected culinary icons: Peter Gilmore, Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer, Sally Wise, Christine Manfield, Mark Olive, Matthew Evans and the Agrarian Kitchen’s Rodney Dunn.