Seed Starting Day! Eggplants in New England?

[HoopyFrood]

Hooray, hooray! It's another seed starting day!

But this is always one of the most exciting: we're starting tomatoes and eggplants today!!

We're in Zone 4B near Midcoast Maine. We have a longer number of frost-free days than many places in New England (I think about 100 or 110), but it doesn't get particularly hot here. 90F or higher is rare. Mid-to-upper 80sF days are common but are "peppered" only throughout July and August usually.

It seems eggplants are particularly challenging in many areas of New England. Has anyone in the region found tricks to help them grow eggplant more successfully?

Reading Nancy Bubel and Ed Smith my wife is devising a container-planting scheme that she hopes will bring us better success than past seasons. I'm not up on the details of that yet, but will be soon. I know we will be making generous use of row cover in the garden this year as well.

In the mean time I thought I'd see if there were any other eggplant fans succeeding in this sometimes challenging crop

Happy gardening, all!

 

[lazy gardener]

I wouldn't call myself an egg plant fan. I actually don't care for them. Since my egg plant experience is limited to restaurant fare, I decided that it was time to grow my own to see if I could develop an appreciation for them. My plants are about 5" tall now, well leafed out.

They like a lot of heat, would do well in a tunnel. Need to be protected from potato beetles. Best cultivars IMO are the small skinny ones.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I wouldn't call myself an egg plant fan. I actually don't care for them. Since my egg plant experience is limited to restaurant fare, I decided that it was time to grow my own to see if I could develop an appreciation for them. My plants are about 5" tall now, well leafed out.

They like a lot of heat, would do well in a tunnel. Need to be protected from potato beetles. Best cultivars IMO are the small skinny ones.

Well if you haven't had an agreeable eggplant culinary experience, here's something to consider:
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-skillet-eggplant-parm-247251

So good and so much easier than the traditional way! I'd also recommend baba gannouj; if you like hummus, that is. We have also devised a simpler-than-traditional recipe for that that. It eliminates roasting large pieces for long times and eliminates the need to peel (resulting in something more rustic than restaurant faire, but I think more tasty. I can dig that up if you like.

We're definitely deploying row cover everywhere this year (our first time trying that). I don't have the details on her container plan yet, but can post them if anyone's interested. Otherwise I'd just love to hear any and all ideas that have helped others grow this somewhat temperamental plant

 

[lazy gardener]

That recipe looks good. Only one problem. Summertime! I am loathe to do any cooking in the house during the summer, especially if it involves oven or broiler. However, that recipe could easily be adapted: Drizzle egg plant with olive oil and either cook direct over the grill flame, or in a foil packet. Then assemble with the sauce and Panko crumbs, and finish it off in the broiler of the toaster oven!

I grill almost all of my summer veggies. Even make pizza on the grill. So, eggplant parm would not be a far stretch to adapt to the grill as well. Looking forward to it.

 

[HoopyFrood]

That recipe looks good. Only one problem. Summertime! I am loathe to do any cooking in the house during the summer, especially if it involves oven or broiler. However, that recipe could easily be adapted: Drizzle egg plant with olive oil and either cook direct over the grill flame, or in a foil packet. Then assemble with the sauce and Panko crumbs, and finish it off in the broiler of the toaster oven!

I grill almost all of my summer veggies. Even make pizza on the grill. So, eggplant parm would not be a far stretch to adapt to the grill as well. Looking forward to it.

Makes sense! I've roasted, broiled, and grilled eggplant. The grilled really is the most flavorful - it loans itself well to smoky dishes! So if you do that you should DEFINITELY try baba ganouj (again IF you like hummus). AMAZING stuff.

And tahini is so easy and cheap to make at home. It's very expensive to buy from the store. So we make all our own tahini, too. And added perk to DIY tahini (beyond it being far cheaper) is you control how much "toastiness" there is in it. The stuff from the store? Who knows?

 

[lazy gardener]

OK, you got me on the Tahini. I thought Tahini was a fermented product, so had not done any further research on it. simply toasted and ground sesame seeds with a bit of olive oil? That, I can do! And, yes, I like hummus.

Will definitely be expanding my cuisine repertoire this summer! Hubby doesn't go for a lot of veggie stuff. But, since I'm the cook... he'll usually eat what's served, even though he'd rather have a hot dog. (gag me!!!)

 

[HoopyFrood]

OK, you got me on the Tahini. I thought Tahini was a fermented product, so had not done any further research on it. simply toasted and ground sesame seeds with a bit of olive oil? That, I can do! And, yes, I like hummus.

Exactly! And you can do small batches with a stick blender so you don't have to dirty an entire food processor. But it freezes nicely, too. So we've transitioned to doing big batches and then portioning it out and freezing. Great for hummus, salad dressings, falafel topping... we've even used it as a peanut butter substitute in a pinch.

Will definitely be expanding my cuisine repertoire this summer! Hubby doesn't go for a lot of veggie stuff. But, since I'm the cook... he'll usually eat what's served, even though he'd rather have a hot dog. (gag me!!!)

Let me guess. He's from Maine?

I supposed it's good for us that a person can't find good, exotic food at the drop of the hat around here. We can't afford to eat out, and even if we could, it's hard to find something that's worth the effort IMO. So we've taken to cooking all the stuff we used go out to eat in our former lives

My dad's from England so I was raised on "traditional" English fair. And my mom, love her to death, was a pretty lousy cook; so she was naturally predisposed to "traditional" English cooking. So when I left home... well I wasn't asking my mom for recipes Actually, both of us have spend time in England, so we DO have a couple English dishes in the repertoire (Lancashire hot pot, shepherd's pie, Cornish pasties)... but they have been "adulterated" for extra tastiness

We're big fans of Mediterranean fares, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese food. Being from the west authentic Mexican is also near and dear to our hearts; but it was hard enough to find out there... it's almost impossible to find in the east! So we started teaching ourselves all that... and being non-traditionalists we wind up with some crazy dishes: MediterrIndian dinners, polenta lasagna, Naanchos...

Okay we're kinda weird... but we have fun!

Oh I'm sure I mentioned one other eggplant dish before that I bet even your hubby would go for: baingor pakora. Some people deep fry it, which is a pain in the butt, so we just pan fry them. Even better than onion rings... and real veggie content, so it MUST be healthy

 

[lazy gardener]

We're both from Maine. He leans towards traditional meat and potatoes fare. If I don't have a huge heap of veggies on my plate, I feel slighted. He likes hot and spicy, I can't take the spicy hot. There is a ? Thai restaurant in down town Bangor that folks tell us we need to try. One of these days, we'll do so.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I don't like eggplant (or summer squashes) but I eat plenty of both since they absorb other flavors well. If your hubby isn't big on veggies you can try using the eggplant to substitute for some meat in a recipe. So if you have a something like a casserole recipe that calls for 1 lb of ground beef, I'd use half beef and half diced eggplant. I do Philly cheesesteaks with half sliced mushroom instead of beef, and beef curry with half cauliflower, etc.

 

[lazy gardener]

I hide zucchini and carrots well. Buzz them up in the blender in a spaghetti sauce. Of course, there is also the cake, muffins, and sweet breads with those veggies added. But, I don't bake often b/c neither of us need the calories.

Those recipes sound wonderful Rose! I consider meat to be more of a condiment than a main part of the meal.