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Preface When you consider that so many Australian home gardeners grow Tomatoes and their
relatives, it's astounding that there is so little about them in print in Australia.
Especially about how the home gardener should grow them and what cultivars are best suited
to our different regions and to our different taste buds. Admittedly there are some
excellent technical bulletins and manuals for commercial growers published by each of the
state and territory departments of Primary Industries or Agriculture, so this little tome
is dedicated to the diversity of the crop and its back yard growers. This is dedicated to
the fruits of love with the latest and most popular cultivars detailed, and only treats
the plant diseases briefly, since there are several excellent technical publications in
that area. Tomato Pests and Disorders , by the Queensland Department of Primary
Industries is particularly good. This edition concentrates on the different varieties
available in Australia and how to grow them with the least effort. More effort of course
gives far better results, but I feel unless we give the first-timer success, they switch
to fishing, power walking or some other demanding recreation. So I wish you success up
front with growing the Fruits of Love... the Tomatoes, Capsicums, Chillies and Eggplants.
I grew up in a market gardening district near "The
Marion" in suburban Adelaide and from the age of 7 pruned, sprayed, picked, graded
and packed Tomatoes. Tomatoes were my second skin until the age of 17, when I left the
market gardens to go Wool classing. I left on a particularly hot summer's day and remember
thinking 'good riddance to the red skins' as I left for what I thought was the last time,
the market garden packing house where the Marion Shopping Centre now stands. I thought 'I
never want to work inside of a glasshouse again!' The wool crash of 1970 brought me into
Landscaping and subsequently gave me a formal Horticultural education, followed by a year
working in London in horticulture. I've since managed a large native plant nursery, which
brought me back into the glasshouses. I've had a four year stint working as a forest
technical officer for Australian International Development Assistance Bureau and the
Australian National University in the mountains of Nepal, managed a broadacre revegetation
program for the local water authority and now manage the South Australian office of
Greening Australia. In my spare time I present Gardening Australia on national television
for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, coupled with regular radio talk-back on
gardening throughout the central footprint and less frequently as a talking head on ABC
Kempsey NSW. I also write for the best selling ABC-Federal Publishing magazine Gardening
Australia. For the past 23 years I have gained a passion for horticulture and Tomatoes in
particular. I cannot imagine a meal without them.
If I've dealt poorly with your favourite Tomato, I'd love
to hear from you. I have tasted most of them myself but a few of the rarer ones I've had
to rely on other taste buds and of course everyone's are different. As a non-smoker my
taste buds are fairly well developed, so the subtle taste of some Tomatoes appeals to me
whereas I know others like the wild 'rooee' taste. With the large number of cultivars
coming onto the market each year and similarly some that disappear, I can foresee an
annual emerging. I hope there are enough different varieties here to satisfy even the most
discerning Tomato gourmets.
Salute the salad, savour the pasta and crave a curry,
because they are nothing without the Fruits of Love!
Malcolm W. Campbell BA MAIH FRHS
81 Rose Terrace Wayville SA 5034
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