Eggplants...growing and cooking

This year, and hopefully each year forward, I like to experiment with new crops I haven't planted before. This year I wanted to try eggplant. I started them from seed inside and once in the garden they produced like crazy. We had more eggplants than we knew what to do with.

Eggplant

What I learned is that we did not need 8-10 plants. Next year I will do well with 4-5 plants.


This year I learned how to cook eggplant. Sure, my Grandmother would make an excellent eggplant parmesan, but what else was I to do with all of the eggplant!

Eggplant Prepared to Cook

I have found that I love to cook eggplant and created some recipes including eggplant bruschetta, eggplant sloppy joe's as well as using it in stir-fry and pasta dishes. You must salt the eggplant before cooking, let stand for 15-30 minutes and pat the moisture out with a paper towel before cooking. Eggplant is very versatile.

What I also learned about eggplant is you can use the little eggplants as well as the larger ones. Honestly, I didn't harvest many large eggplants. They were so heavy they would bend the plants down. So next year I will support the plants with stakes, pick off some small eggplants and attempt to grow larger ones, which I might have more fun in the kitchen with.