Those who live driving distance of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula are very lucky indeed. Not just because it’s a beautiful part of the world, but because they have access to some of Australia’s best tomatoes.

Daniel’s Run Farm is a finalist in the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards and grows around 200-250 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Co-owner Cheryl McGaffin says the farm follows organic and sustainable principles to grow for taste, not yield.  

“It was a hobby that went out of control, we have a 20 acre farm so there’s a lot of room to grow stuff. About 15 years ago heirloom varieties were becoming a bit more mainstream and variety is the spice of life,” she says.

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“The varieties also help with the biodiversity of the crop, each has its own disease resistant profile. We only plant one variety of each and encourage them to crosspolinate so what develops adapts to the local conditions, does better and tastes better.” McGaffin grows the tomatoes outside, not in polytunnel greeenhouses.   

“We do a few things to make them taste good, one is not to over prune them. We give them their own space outside so we don’t worry so much about air flow and or disease pressure because they’re not crowded,” she says.

“The plants get very big, they’re more like trees. They easily get to eight-10 feet and we grow them in cages to support them.”

On average, the farm produces two tonnes of tomatoes a season, which are supplied to Victorian restaurants. But then Covid happened.

“The subscription box was borne out of Covid, restaurants were shut and we were stuck with all these tomatoes,” McGaffin says.

“I was getting a few local enquiries, so I opened a spot in farm shed. It was word of mouth, people told me how many kilos they wanted per week, fortnight or month and would come to pick them up from the farm.

“It’s grown quite a bit now, we do about 60-70 people a season, they come from all over Victoria. People who come from a long way order a bigger amount monthly because they have a good shelf life and I can pick a few blush ones to stagger their ripeness.”

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When asked to choose her favourite tomato variety, McGaffin likens it to choosing a favourite child.

“I’ve never tasted a bad tomato from my place. Some are fruity, some are zesty, some taste like a lime, some are smoky, some are sweet and some are sour – I quite like those,” she says.

“The purple calabash is unique in that it’s a sour tomato, pair it with a little salt and its very nice. The Paul Robeson is very smokey and salty, it’s like drinking a red wine.”

Her favourite preparation for tomatoes is a simple one.

“On a piece of sourdough, a little salt and drizzle of olive – maybe a slice of cheese. That way you can really taste them, tomatoes have a lot of umami in them.”

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