Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Amazing aubergines!
Easy eggplant dishes to try tonight
O na rainy Saturday morning, Amy Peterson smiled brightly as shoppers browsed her booth at the Downingtown Farmers’ Market. One of the highlights: mini, purple-and-white, enchanted-looking eggplant like something from a bedtime story.
“It’s really beautiful, and it’s pretty eye-catching because it’s so tiny,” said the co-owner of Shiloh Farm in Glenmoore. “People are surprised and not sure what it is.”
Once upon a time, they may never have seen such beauties, aptly named Fairy Tale.
“They’re less bitter because they’re smaller fruit,” added Peterson, a firstgrade teacher who started farming organically three years ago. “They also have less seeds, and they’re more flavorful.”
Along with Fairy Tale, she and her husband, Ross, grow “long and skinny” Japanese eggplant, which are “really flavorful as well.”
Kimberton CSA, a 10-acre organic farm in Phoenixville, offers the deep purple Orient Express and a similar, lighter-colored eggplant called Orient Charm.
Another stunner: Nubia, a “purpleand-white Italian,” Frank Kurylo described. And don’t miss Rosa Blanca, a “pink-and-white Italian heirloom variety.”
Prefer something more familiar? There’s Galine, a classic “black/deep purple, Italian/bell type.”
Find these amazing aubergines at his Lansdale Farmers’ Market stand and enjoy them in everything from stir-fries to sandwiches. So much eggplant, so little time…
“I used to think that naming a street would be the coolest thing, but now that I’ve been growing vegetables, I think naming our own variety would be better,” he said.
“There’s a variety called Jaylo, and I can only assume why.”