Harvest to Table

Eggplant lovers grow eggplant. Eggplant is not an easy-care crop: it demands rich soil, even consistent water, warm temperatures, bonus side-dressings of nutrients, and little or no wind. If eggplants don’t get what they want, there are no rewards for the grower. But keep an eggplant happy and out of harm’s way and you will [...]

Give eggplants a warm location, warm soil and keep them evenly watered and stress free and they will reward you with beauty and flavor. Here are best bet, easy-to-grow eggplants divided into shape and size categories: (1) large oval eggplants; (2) elongated eggplants; and (3) white eggplants. Keep reading to the bottom of this post [...]

Eggplant is very tender perennial grown as an annual. Eggplant requires 100 to 140 warm days with temperatures consistently between 70° and 90°F to reach harvest. Eggplant is best started indoors and later transplanted into the garden; sow eggplant indoors 6 to 8 weeks before setting plants into the garden. Transplant seedlings into the garden [...]

Aubergine or eggplant? You’ll find this vegetable under either name in cookbooks. Eggplant is the name used by most American speakers. Aubergine is chiefly a British usage. Eggplant was the name originally given to the white-skinned, egg-shaped variety of the vegetable sometime in the mid-eighteenth century. Aubergine followed about 30 years later. By the middle [...]

The subtle flavor and meaty texture of eggplant make it especially versatile in cooking. Perhaps that’s why eggplant is found in so many cuisines around the world. One of the strengths of eggplant is its ability to absorb the flavor of whatever it is cooked with and at the same time add a creamy bulkiness [...]

Oriental-type eggplants are primarily slim, tapered or pointed elongated fruits that may remind you somewhat of a skinny, smooth and shiny cucumber. Oriental eggplants are mild, tender-skinned, creamy-fleshed, and quick-cooking eggplants. The Oriental-type eggplants can be divided into two groups: Chinese eggplants and Japanese eggplants. Chinese eggplants are lavender-blushed white, amethyst, and red-violet colored. They [...]

The mild flavor and light, spongy texture of the eggplant make it a good match for other vegetables, browned and chopped meat, cooked fish or shellfish. The eggplant can be sliced and simmered, sautéed or stir-fried, pan-fried, deep-fried, baked or boiled, and broiled and grilled. One small or medium-size eggplant split lengthwise will make two [...]

Eggplant? Did you say ratatouille? All of the key ingredients for ratatouille are available fresh and local in mid summer tomatoes, onions, zucchini, bell peppers and, of course, eggplant. When you think of eggplant, you think first of the oval, black-skinned cultivar known as ‘Black Beauty.’ That is the classic eggplant with its rich, complex [...]

The eggplant is a fruit not a vegetable. Botanically speaking a fruit is the ripened ovary–including the seeds–of a flowering plant. That means that many foods called vegetables when cooking are actually fruits. That list would include squash, pumpkin, cucumber, sweet pepper, tomato and eggplant. Does that make ratatouille technically a kind of fruit sald? [...]