Today I had my first harvest of mini eggplants! Can you call 4 tiny eggplants a harvest? Oh well, I’m going with it. Those two purple eggplants are the infamous Bert & Ernie. Kermit is still safe on the plant, growing a little more. The other two are mini green eggplants whose variety ironically is named… Kermit.
One of the challenges in the garden this year was that I have never grown eggplant, full size or mini, before so I wasn’t sure when to pick it. I looked up a few articles on the internet and they all said to be sure to pick them before too many seeds form inside. Inside? How am I supposed to know how many seeds are inside until I pick it and cut it open?!
So I guessed and know I know that the purples ones were just the right size. The little green ones were slightly overgrown, too many seeds. Next time I will know better.
Bert and Ernie did not go down easily. It turns out some of the purple eggplants have thorns on them. After suffering a couple of puncture wounds I wrangled them into the kitchen and sliced them up along with the mini green ones and tossed them in olive oil, salt & pepper.
I let them get some good grill marks and grilled off some pencil asparagus I had picked up at Whole Foods. I added that to some rigatoni, basil & garlic chicken sausage, freshly picked basil, fresh grated Parmesan and homemade pesto I had saved in the freezer.
It was a very satisfying and tasty Sunday dinner!
I think next week will finally yield my first red Roma tomato!!
