Is it spring yet?! This week on Eat Your Words, host Cathy Erway is optimistically talking spring vegetable gardens, specifically tomatoes, with “tomatomaniac” Scott Daigre. Every year, Scott hosts TomatoMania!, a traveling pop-up sale of hundreds of heirloom and hybrid tomato seedlings and has also recently released the new book “Tomatomania!: A Fresh Approach to Celebrating Tomatoes in the Garden and in the Kitchen.” In the book, Scott provides a peek into his Ojai, California, tomato patch and details a “reality gardening” approach to growing the world’s favorite summer treat. Tomatomania! walks readers through every step of the tomato gardening process, from the earliest planning stages to those final satisfying kitchen table moments of the season. Scott previews what to expect out of this year’s TomatoMania! event and leads an interesting discussion on tomato varieties and the ‘breeding’ process. Tune in and become a ‘maniac along with Cathy! This program was brought to you by the Tabard Inn.

“Tomatoes are a huge springboard for the spring garden and for people in the growing season.” [3:20]

“The book combines all the information and know how that how we’ve gained from all these years, so it celebrates tomatoes!” [19:39]

—Scott Daigre on Eat Your Words