Fairy Tale: 15 These continue to be some of our favorites. They are purple and white, small, early, and prolific. This seemed like a reasonable number.
Purple Long: 3 These didn't have a great year. I do like to have a few of these, even though people don't much buy them.
Galine: 24 These are the regular eggplant. This and Black Beauty have been successful for us, but Galine is easier to find these days. We didn't get much production until late, but I think in a better year this would have been a good number. If we planted everything expecting a year like we had last year, in a good year we would have way more food than we could deal with. Eggplant suffer from not having a good method of preservation. A couple of years ago I stored some in olive oil, but I'm afraid to serve them to other people in case there is a way botulism could get in there. Plus, I'm just not that crazy about eggplant.
Thai Green: 5 These seemed more popular this year. One problem (from the farmer's perspective) with these is that the skin is very thin (which is an advantage from the eating perspective), which leads to scratches as the wind blows the fruit against the plant. If they are too scarred up, people won't buy them.
Thai Pea: These were an experiment this year. They sounded cool, but their growing season is way too long for us. The plants were huge (3.5-4' tall) and sturdy, but they didn't bloom until into September as I recall. No fruit actually set. So I don't think we'll have them this year. I've been tempted by the small white eggplant, especially since we saw them growing in Tanzania. Although we like growing weird stuff, people don't so much like buying it, so we'll have to think about it.
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