First eggplant this year will be....

[nctomatoman]

The eggplant onslaught has begun - this afternoon, picked Listada di Gandia (incredibly beautiful - perhaps most attractive of all), two more Millionaire, two Slim Jim, and the first Black Beauty. On the menu for tomorrow - Ratatouille, using the last of our canned tomatoes from last season.

[Cecilia_MD7a]

I picked, grilled, and ate my first eggplant of the year two days ago - Lavender Touch. Yum.

I noticed yesterday that one of my Neon plants has a small fruit growing. Won't be long now!

[Sorellina]

Ciao all,

The winner was indeed Casper with Violetta Lunga not far behind. We had those as fritti last week and last night had 2 additional Caspers. All of the plants are putting out fruit like crazy. In another few days, I'll have some ripe Antiguas and are they ever beautiful things! Looks like I'll be getting the canning jars out for making some caponata. I only wish I had some ripe tomatoes to add, sigh.

[chilhuacle]

Ichiban was first for me. Millionaire is more productive but it's also in a better spot. I saw the Casper at the nursery only a few weeks ago so it got a very late start. I imagine they'll get longer too!

[montanamato]

Finally something besides blosssoms...Italian White has fruit.
The thai eggplants have been blooming longer but nothing yet....

Jeanne

[Althea]

As predicted, Diamond was our first edible eggplant of the year. We had one for dinner last night. I could have left it on the plant longer, but we (I) couldn't wait to try one. It was excellent, sauteed in olive oil with pasta.

[mdvpc]

We had 5 ping tung long and 1 casper yesterday. Casper was a little tough compared to the ping tung long-they were excellent. The ping tung long were harvested very shiny.

[MawkHawk]

Hmmm, Little Spooky looks exactly like the Casper picture. I wonder if they're the same variety.

[Chicago_Joe]

I had my first Violetta di Firenze. I can't say enough about how incredible the taste and beautiful this variety is. I highly reccommend it. I simply put salt and pepper and a little olive oil on it and then grilled it on medium high heat for about 7 minutes.

[nctomatoman]

We've had lots of eggplant the last three years, as I've tested many varieties. Favorites to this point - from this year, two large black purples - New York Spineless Improved and Black Beauty (we like to roast these and make an Indian Curry called Bangan Bharta, or use as slices in eggplant parmesan), the various slender, black purple, pale green fleshed ones such as Ichiban, Orient Express, and Millionaire; Early Green Giant, large medium green; Prosperosa, a large round deep lavendar (similar to Rosita), Antigua (white with purple stripes, slender), Listada di Gandia (more rounded, white with purple stripes), Zebra/Purple Rain (recent lovely hybrid - purple with streaks of white, like marble)...and Machiaw hybrid. Bride (slender blushed) and the various whites and greens (Casper, Cloud 9, Bianca di Imola, Lousiana Long Green, Apple Green) are all fine and yield well.

Less pleased with the odd round green to orange ones (Turkish Orange, Kermit - stays two tone green), the small round white (Lao White), Ribbed white (Thai White ribbed - though it certainly has a beautiful shape), the smaller slender ones (Slim Jim, Fairy Tale), small round stripes (Calliope).

We did discover that 15 plants in pots is way, way too much - we are giving away multiples of what we are eating!

[Grub]

Thanks for the tip, Craig. I narrowed down my choice and will grow 14