I wanted to encourage people to plant eggplants earlier this spring, but we have been so busy here at the Great Outdoors I did not get to write this in time for our April newsletter. Sorry. Luckily eggplants can still be planted during the first half of May. In the beginning my gardens did not contain eggplants since I did not know how to cook with them.  The first time I planted eggplant was purely for the novelty, just to see if I could get it to grow. It did not take up much space and was such a pretty plant, with purple flowers followed by showy purple fruit; I added other varieties the next year. I still did not cook with them. I either picked them and let them go bad in the fridge or left them on the plants until they grew large and yellow. (You do not want to eat them at this point; they are bitter and full of seeds) 
I got good at growing eggplants before I got good at cooking them. Eggplants are really quite easy. They are in the nightshade family along with tomatoes and peppers. If you are successful with tomatoes and peppers, eggplants will be a cinch.  Just provide a sunny location with well composted soil. Eggplants do not get tall like tomatoes. They are more the size of pepper plants, but because they bear large fruit, provide them with a small tomato cage or stake to prevent them from being weighed down when in heavy production. Problems that can occur include cutworms, flea beetles, aphids, and spider mites. Cut worms strike when eggplants are still young transplants. Empty toilets paper rolls make a good barrier around the stem. I'm a bit too lazy to do any preventative measures against cut worms. As a result, I do lose 1 or 2 cucumber and/or bean plants a year, but that's not enough damage for me to put forth any extra effort. Around the end of April flea beetles will hit my eggplants and basil. They leave the new leaves covered in tiny dots. The plants look awful, but I don't spray. Flea beetles seem to be in my garden for such a short time period of time, I feel that whether I spray or not they will be gone soon. As for the damaged leaves, I pick those off and the plant grows new ones. In a couple of weeks you can't even tell there was a problem. I could start spraying my plants with an organic insecticide mid April to prevent the beetles in the first place, but I would probably kill a number of beneficial bugs too, and as I said, I'm a bit too lazy. Spider mites show up on the undersides of leaves around June and July when the weather heats up. If my plants are still producing well I will spray the undersides of the leaves with NEEM oil (not during the heat of the day). If fruit production has slowed I will just pull the plants out. Aphids I spray off with the hose. This year I'm trying a new product called The Bug Blaster to treat aphids and spider mites. 
The most common eggplant you see in grocery stores is Black Beauty, dark purple and pear-shaped. Ichiban, a Japanese elongated variety is also easy to find, but there are so many more. Casper is egg-shaped and white. Kermit is small, round, and green. Dancer is magenta, Bride is lavender, Calliope has stripes, and Turkish orange is, well, orange. Two plants are enough for one person, I usually plant 6 for my household of two and that is plenty to eat and share. This year I have somehow ended up with 18 plants. This is a lesson in planting 6 packs; no matter how economical a 6 pack is there are some vegetables you just don't need multiples of six of.
   Yes, I do cook with eggplant now. I love eggplant parmesan and moussaka, but do not like to follow recipes that require multiple steps. I find it easiest to prepare eggplant under the broiler. Pick eggplants while still young, less than 8" long. Without peeling them, I cut them into strips or slices and lightly coat them with garlic olive oil. Then I pop them under the broiler for about 10 minutes or less. Turn them over about half way through, and keep an eye on them they as go from perfect to burnt really fast. You can eat them warm from the oven as a side with parmesan or lemon juice, or eat them cold with capers and olives. Store them in the fridge and add them to pasta, pizza, or Panini's. Turn broiled eggplant into a fabulous dip or spread by combining garlic, lemon juice, and tahini paste in the food processor. Instant baba ganoush! There use to be a bakery on Congress that served a sandwich with brie, fresh basil, roasted peppers and eggplant; it was delicious yet so simple. So plant some eggplant, even if you choose not to cook with it, they look great in a bowl as a centerpiece on your table.
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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