Ode to Egglant...

As a (mostly) vegetarian for the last 20 something years I can tell you that I've been served a lot of eggplant.  It seems most restaurants can't resist the idea that if you don't like meat, than you must Love eggplant.   Its not true.  I find myself rather indifferent to egg plant.  I personally have a 'take it or leave' it attitude for the spongy, kinda slimy little (to enormous) fruit.  With the exception of baba ghanoush, it wasn't until Matt started making this eggplant that I thought "we must grow these!"

Okay... now that we have them in the garden I've learned some things.  Did every one know how pretty these guys are?  I knew that they were gorgeous at the market, but the whole plant is just so pretty!  In my recent harvesting research I've learned a few things about the beautiful eggplant that you probably didn't know either....

"The Eggplant was believed by superstitious Europeans to induce insanity and was unaffectionately known as the "Mad Apple" until only a few centuries ago".  

"At one time, women in the Orient used a black dye made form eggplant to stain their teeth a gun metal gray."

 

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"Eggplant is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant, with a concentration of 100 ng/g (or 0.01 mg/100g). However, the amount of nicotine from eggplant or any other food is negligible compared to passive smoking.  On average, 20 lbs (9 kg) of eggplant contains about the same amount of nicotine as a cigarette".

Well there you have it.  The more I read about eggplant the more I find I could really adore this crazy little plant.  Find out more about eggplant here, here and here.