Many gardeners at the community garden grew eggplant (aka aubergine) quite successfully last year, and I was wishing I had planted some too. There’s so many nice combinations of tomatoes and eggplant, and wouldn’t it be nice to have an abundance of both at the same time? So early this summer, I planted 3 eggplants (eggplant plants?) of the purple, Japanese variety (long and thin, rather than the larger, rounder Italian type), and one eggplant called Gretel. Gretel eggplant fruits are white and long, but are smaller overall.
I planted 2 of these plants in our home garden, and the other two at the community garden, and the ones at the community garden are doing great. Look how pretty the Gretel plant and fruit looks!
The first harvest, later cooked with onions and garlic and mixed with pasta. So delicious. This is a seriously tasty vegetable. Fruit. Whatever. Yum.
Our home garden isn’t getting enough light these days for the eggplant to do well there. But the swiss chard is loving the shade 🙂 and it’s been too hot to get out there and trim the tree that is causing all the shade. Here’s a shot of my community garden plot. It’s been very hot here but humid, so the plants are pretty happy.
Seeing a white eggplant fruit made me curious about the naming of the plant. Here’s the OED definition and etymology.
A popular name for the Solanum esculentum, originally given to the white-fruited variety, but afterwards extended to that which bears the purple fruit or Aubergine.
1767Â Â T. Mawe & J. Abercrombie Every Man his Own Gardener 50Â Â The choicest kinds [of tender annuals] are the double balsams..ice plant, egg plant and China asters.
1785Â Â T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xvi. 208Â Â When this [sc. its fruit] is white, it has the name of Egg-Plant.
1847Â Â M. M. Sherwood Life xv. 273Â Â Soup made of a glutinous vegetable, and the egg-plant roasted before the fire.
1855  ‘E. S. Delamer’ Kitchen Garden 125  There is the purple-fruited egg-plant, and the white-fruited egg-plant.
Your gardens at home and at the community area look so lovely! I’ve never eaten the white variety of eggplant.