February and March are the months for sun-warmed tomatoes, rather than the oft bragged about ripe tomatoes by Christmas - they have no flavour. The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney holds an annual Tomato Festival in mid-February. I visited the gardens three days before the event and met a fellow pruning trees near the Art Gallery gates. We had a chat and he told me about the Tomato Mandala he was responsible for creating.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
To my later delight I discovered he was Jimmy Turner, director of horticulture at the Botanic Garden and Centennial Parklands. The huge array of multi-hued tomatoes were purchased from Harris Farm Markets. Crowds at the festival can eat at a long lunch, win a prize for homemade passata, learn how to grow and preserve tomatoes and purchase Red Robin tomato and herb plants raised by the Friends of the Botanic Garden, sponsored by W & D Lynch of Rossmore Plants and Herbs.
For kitchen gardeners, the main excitement is the tomato tasting run by Diggers. The Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Garden prepare and serve the tomatoes. The favourite variety this year was Black Cherry, which has juicy, sweet flesh and plants are strong and vigorous with good disease resistance.
Black Cherry tomato was developed from a natural cross bred by the late Vince Sapp in Florida USA with his wife, Linda Sapp, owners of the Tomato Growers Supply. Records state that Vince Sapp was an attorney who gardened after work and on weekends in his backyard. Black Cherry is regarded as a 'modern heirloom' and has been certified organic.
Canberra tomato crop
This year I took a punt. A friend, Gini Hole of Red Hill, had a number of tomato seedlings appear in her raised vegetable bed so I took two, varieties unknown, and planted each one in a large black plastic pot with good potting mix. One is a red cherry and the other a Roma and I was pleased to pick 42 tomatoes in one day a fortnight ago.
Thea O'Loughlin, to whom I referred in this column last week as the giver of lettuce seedlings last July, was pregnant when we interviewed her. Now her baby boy Ash enjoys the Macquarie backyard and Thea says their garden is "thumping with tomatoes at the moment, we are pulling 5kg a day of 16 different varieties".
During our current Indian summer, Gini has been slow baking her Roma tomatoes, which she slices in half and dresses with dried herbs, Tridosha Salt of the Sea, olive oil and homemade breadcrumbs. They are placed in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes or until done. They are moreish. Gini serves them with a glass of Collector "Shoreline" rose, purchased at the cellar door. The wine has red cherry and rose water aromas from Sangiovese and Mammolo grape varieties and its name comes from a Rosalie Gascoigne artwork.
Indian Summer Tastes
Tridosha is celebrating 21 years of small batch Australian manufacturing in Byron Bay hinterland. The aesthetics of artisan food and quality ingredients are foremost for the company and their products are stocked by retailers nation-wide and can be purchased through the Tridosha website.
Salt of the Sea includes native spice, citrus Siam and Indian summer blends.
Tridosha Royal tea is organic, loose leaf black and green tea from Sri Lanka, selected from fair-trade estates. There is organic champagne rose Bloomsbury tea or Waterfall and Forest Garden varieties and the National Gallery of Australia has just selected the Royal tea for their gift shop during the Cartier exhibition, which opens next week.
Loriendale Orchard
Owen Pidgeon has been in touch to say that summer down on the farm has been "pretty extreme. Only two good nights of rain..the first in early December ruined most of the little cherry crop but the main dam was refilled after being very low." Then the wind storm in late February shook off half the pear crop (most pears still very green) and a lot of the orchard's special old English heritage apples.
Nevertheless for the 28th annual Apple Dau harvest celebrations on Saturday, March 24 the Pidgeons expect to have at least 20 varieties of organic apples available plus a good selection of varieties of pears and figs. There will be delicious fresh strawberries and a good harvest of hazelnuts and vegetables.
There will be country-style apple pies and freshly crushed apple juice, French crepes and an organic meat barbecue live music, Devonshire tea and coffee.
Entry to the Apple Day (from 1.30-5pm) is free but a gold coin donation is welcome to support the Green Pastures Hospital in Nepal. Loriendale Orchard is just past Hall, at 16 Carrington Road (off Spring Range Road).
