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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Eggplant Question
  • Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:30:28 -0400


On Jul 28, 2005, at 10:02 AM, Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:

I don't know much about eggplant (don't like it much so I rarely grow it).
I'm growing several varieties in my market garden this year because a
couple people asked for it. The long oriental type are soft...should they
be that way? I harvest them at about 8-10" long. The big dark purple ones
in the store are hard as rocks, and my other varieties are firm but not
hard. Is 'soft' normal for long orientals or are they under/over ripe?

Depends on what you mean by soft. They should not be flabby with wrinkly skins, that's from too long storage or sometimes from drought in the field. But they should certainly not he "hard as rocks", and neither should the more standard type! If the eggplant in the store are like that they are almost certainly bitter and terrible tasting. (Maybe you had eggplant like that and that's why you don't like it; though eggplant is a bit of an acquired taste.) Good eggplant of any shape should not be bitter (except I think for some varieties grown for specific Asian cuisines that want bitter fruit, but even most Asian recipes seem to want the nonbitter ones). 8" to 10" long for Asian types should be fine; I harvest at 6" to 12", but then I have some customers who like little and some who like big ones. Some markets only want the little ones.

Also, should they be refrigerated? I normal leave the veggies out in the
farm stand during the day and refridgerate everything except tomatoes at
night (I'm only open 3 days a week and harvest fresh every week...give
away or feed any excess to the sheep after market days)

Don't refrigerate unless you have a cooler set at 55ยบ F or above (such as for tomatoes). Too much cold will make them discolored and bitter. They should keep several days at cool room temperature and a couple of days even if the weather's hot, but of course not in direct sun.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale




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