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Virag: Forgot eggplants? What was I thinking

Irene Virag | GARDENING

July 20, 2008

I don't know whether time speeded up when I wasn't looking in my vegetable garden this season or I was simply too busy worrying about the roses to notice the Swiss chard, but suddenly everything was going wild. The lettuce was about to bolt, the squash was trying to strangle the tomatoes, the beans were reaching over the obelisk and the eggplant - ohmygod, the eggplant was missing, and it was all my fault.

It would have been bad enough if I'd done something to the eggplant, but it was worse. I hadn't done anything. I know I'm futzing around here, trying to evade the truth, but it's not an easy thing to admit. I forgot to plant the eggplant, and I don't want to explore why. It's as if I neglected to floss my teeth before going to bed or forgot to watch "Dr. Who" on Friday night.

I couldn't be more heartfelt about this. I like lettuce, I enjoy peas, I'm a Swiss chard junkie and I have a long-standing relationship with tomatoes. I adored sweet corn fresh from my garden and still would if you could tell me how to deal with the raccoons. Arugula can make me giddy, but I love eggplants. And not just because two hybrid varieties - white, violet-striped Fairy Tale and dark purple Hansel - won All-America Selections Awards a few years ago, or because the National Garden Bureau has declared 2008 "The Year of The Eggplant."

Not that it hasn't been appreciated for centuries. It's believed that the eggplant originated in India - and onward to China - around 500 BC. It didn't show up in Italy until the 14th century. And even then, Europeans were slow to bring it to the table as well as the garden. Their reluctance may have derived from the fact that the eggplant, aka Solanum melongena, belongs to the same family as deadly nightshade and had a bad rep - some people even thought it could cause insanity.

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All eggplants did to me was make me crazy about them. I've loved them since the first season I planted them 12 years ago. I gobble them up grilled, stuffed, baked, mashed, puréed or sauteed. I savor them in moussaka, baba ganoush, eggplant parmigiana and ratatouille.

And I love them in the ground as well as in Indian, Italian, Greek and Thai restaurants. Rose, white or lavender. Oval-shaped, globe-shaped or cylindrical. It doesn't matter. Even before the fruit appears, eggplants are gorgeous, with their lovely lavender or purple flowers. All I have to do is go out in the garden and look at curving Neon eggplants shining as if there were lights inside them and I can't wait to get them in the kitchen. The same goes for Ghostbuster - a pale, white-fleshed delight - and most of the other varieties I like. A baked ratatouille with our own eggplants is enough to make my husband do handstands. I'm speaking figuratively, of course - he's lucky if he can get up from weeding without holding on to something.

I concede that eggplants are not terribly nutritious, but they're low in fat and calories. Besides, they contain vitamins B6 and A as well as magnesium, potassium, folic acid and copper.

My favorites include the first American variety, Black Beauty, which made the food stands at the start of the 20th century, and another pear-shaped, dark purple passion called Dusky. I also like Asian varieties such as Ichiban, which resembles a curved zucchini - only it's so dark it's almost black.

The National Garden Bureau also mentions Millionaire, with nearly seedless glossy black fruit, and Orient Charm, whose fruit is pale lavender, fluorescent pink or pastel pink streaked with white. Also tiny Bambino - with 1 1/2-inch baby fruits on 12-inch-tall plants - and another of my favorites, Rosa Bianca, a classic heirloom that's rose, lavender or even white on the outside and creamy on the inside. And the garden bureau touts some specialty varieties like golf-ball-sized, green-and-white-striped Kermit, purple pencil-thin Machiaw, and Turkish Orange, which, as you might expect, is bright orange.

You can grow eggplants from seed or buy seedlings. If you start from seed, remember to harden the plants off before they go into the garden or a container - of course, you won't have to worry about this again until next year. And like tomatoes, they can provide interest on decks and patios. If your eggplants are growing in a pot, make sure there's drainage and use a slow-release organic fertilizer. In the garden, compost well before planting and remember that eggplants like full sun. Watch out for potato beetles and aphids.

But about my moment of shock when I checked out the tumult in my overcrowded vegetable beds and realized that I had forgotten to plant the eggplants. I ran out to the nearest nursery and picked up the few seedlings that were still there. Dusky and Ghostbuster and my beloved Ichiban. Obviously they weren't babies, but at least they didn't have flowers on them yet. I spent an afternoon restoring a modicum of order to the garden and tucked them in and they seem to be happy.

I tell them how much I care and that I can't wait for them to grow up. They have so much to offer and I want it all. What can I say? I'm a gardener in love.

Write to Irene Virag at 1019 Fort Salonga Rd., Suite 10, #302, Northport, NY 11768 or email irenevirag@optonline.net. Visit her blog at www.irenevirag.com