Fieldnotes: It's No Yolk: We Love Eggplant!

Variety: Fairy Tale Eggplant

We love this smaller variety of eggplant. With a quicker period until maturity than Turkish or Asian eggplant because of their smaller size, they make a great option for the Laramie growing season. With quirky purple and white stripes, they’re easy to cook with and incredibly fun to grow!

How to Grow: Eggplant should be started inside in a very warm environment. We had luck starting these in our hydroponics system where our room temperature was around 80 degrees, but these would work great starting in soil as well, keeping soil temperature around 80 degrees. We recommend starting them around 8 weeks before you plan on transplanting them outside. We had lower plant loss and a great yield by letting them get as big as possible before attempting to transplant them, as well as dropping the temperature to around 60-70 degrees while hardening them off. Eggplants are sensitive and heat loving, so to be sure we avoided a frost, we waited until June 10th to plant ours outside. With good soil and sun they can get semi-bushy, so we recommend planting them about 14-18 inches apart. 

From the time you transplant them outdoors, you can expect about 65-70 days until they are ready to harvest! 

Where to Source: We use the Fairy Tale eggplant variety from Johnny’s Seeds and had great success.

Things we Learned: Eggplant put off beautiful purple flowers that need to be pollinated, so be sure if you’re putting these into hoop houses or green houses, you have a trusty pollinator source or can hand pollinate. 

How to use Fairytale Eggplant in the Kitchen: Most people have a love-hate relationship with eggplant, but we think you should give these baby eggplants a second chance with these delicious ways to prepare them!

When picking an eggplant, look for one that’s not squishy or rubbery; they should be slightly hard. 

A basic way to prepare baby eggplant: To prepare your eggplant, slice off the very top and the very bottom. You can peel off the skin if you prefer, but it’s entirely edible. Cut eggplant into disks, strips, or cubes.

You can take one extra step here and salt your eggplant before cooking it. Salting it and letting sit in a colander for a few minutes helps to drain off some of the bitter liquid from inside the eggplant. (Cook’s Illustrated actually recommends letting salted eggplant sit for 2-3 hours.) Rinse and pat dry before cooking.

Cara’s Grilled Fairytale Eggplant with Garlic & Mint: Recipe From “The Kitchen.” 

In a large bowl, toss the eggplant with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (enough to generously coat the eggplant), 2 minced garlic cloves, salt, pepper, (red pepper flakes also if you wish), and 4 to 6 large mint leaves, coarsely chopped; let stand to marinate for about 30 minutes. 

Grill the eggplant in a grill basket over medium-high heat, covered. If it's not grilling season or you don’t have a grill, baking at 375 degrees or using a top grill will work well. Turn occasionally until the skins are slightly charred and the flesh is tender, about 10 minutes (the baking route will need 5-8 more minutes). Transfer the eggplant pieces back to the bowl you used to marinate them. Immediately toss them with a splash of red wine or balsamic vinegar, a sprinkle of flaked sea salt, and a small handful of freshly chopped mint.

Enjoy!