Fairytale Eggplant

It's been a really busy weekend. On Friday, I received 3 Fairytale eggplants that I ordered last year from Burpee. I kept them watered, but they were drying out quick in the little pots they came in. I debated whether I should plant them outside or not since low temperatures at night are still expected. Ultimately, I decided to plant them anyway. It's better than leaving them to dry out and die.



I pulled out the sugar snap pea plants and planted the eggplants there instead. I sacrificed the peas since I know I can plant more in the fall. I buried the pea plants into the soil since they provide nitrogen to the soil when they die. When I dug the hole for the eggplants, I filled it with extra compost. To the left is the kale which I have been harvesting for dinner to make room for the other plants.

And I'm Spent

That's it chickadees! I can safely say that the season is over! I spent the weekend harvesting the rest of this year's bounty and hacking down everything else to make room for next spring.

• 54 Eggplants
• 7 Bellpeppers
• 250+ Tomatoes
• And everything else
  

Just when you think it's over...

Since last week's "final" count up we've had a "few" more stragglers.

• 62 more tomatoes
• 1 zucchini
• 1 watermelon
• 4 bell peppers
• 9 eggplants

The eggplants are really beautiful now. I don't think they liked the drought and heat in August.



As I weeded today, I found this little guy hiding amongst the leaves. It's the size of soccer ball.

TGIF!

Far be it for me to decide, but I suspect I'm gonna have a lot of salsa this summer! These are the heirloom tomatoes.



2 more of the white eggplants. I'm going to grill them this weekend.



The bell peppers are getting bigger. They are about 2.5" long now.



My roses are looking beautiful!





We have a new dahlia! It's so pretty.

Growing Eggplants

According to ehow, you should be fertilizing your eggplant plants monthly now and giving them 1" of water a week. I tend to disagree about using fertilizers. Although I can see that mine aren't the size of the ones in the market, they are plenty for 2-4 people.

Trying this recipe this weekend using eggplant instead of zucchini. I also found another blog with some great veggie recipes including this eggplant and lentils. I love lentils!

Grilled Summer Veggies

I love the taste of eggplant and zucchini on the grill. Season generously with salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil. The white eggplant tastes much milder than the purple ones.



2 new zucchinis - I thought that the zucchini harvest was over, but we seem to be getting lots of new flowers on the plants. I put the flowers on the grill too and they taste no different from any other plant. Be sure to remove the stamen in the center of the flower.



I absolutely love these fingerling eggplants. They are so prolific and grow just as large as opposed to last year's eggplant.



Roasted Eggplant dip - When there are too many eggplants and you can't eat them in time, roast them in a baking pan with lots of olive oil, peppers, garlic cloves and onions. Allow to cool, then blend it up in a food processor or blender. Serve with pita chips.

What came first? The egg or the plant?

My husband laughs because this round, white eggplant really does look like an egg. I wonder if it will taste the same as the others.

Here are the little fingerling eggplants. These are great sauteed in a pan.



This was the fingerling eggplant from last week. It was far longer than a finger, so I cut it off to promote the growth of the others.



We grilled it with some chicken (no pun intended!) and marinated them in balsamic vinegar and garlic.

Big and Small

As I weeded today, I spotted a wonderful surprise! A wee wittle eggie plant!



Then I found a big surprise; striata zucchini!



Corn is about 3.5' tall now.



The cleome is a awesome! What a great filler plant. It's big, tall and bushy. It smells like marijuana too.




Cucumber



Does anyone know the name of this?



Dahlia



This dahlia is different. It's long and sprawled over the ground.