Vegetable Growing 2025

Having had yet more dwarf french beans being stringy (so just using the beans inside now) had a look at the pea beans and WHAT....... so many and we hadn't noticed. Picked most of them and hope they wont be stringy (never happened before but then neither did that with the dwarf french beans). So a lot of work this afternoon to get most of them ready for the freezer.
Then we found some more figs. How do the birds know that they can peck one side of a ripe fig and make us think the whole fig is perfect?

 

Grape "sapuga", white star F1 white onions, my victoria plum has silver leaf by the looks of things and is very poorly

 

Morning all, has anyone ever grown white aubergines please? The seeds came with a magazine but didn’t really think it through. I have 3 plants in potato buckets and they are going mad. It says to pick them at 7cm but I have no idea what to do with them. I sliced rings and roasted them, the skin was really tough and inedible. So I peeled them and roasted cubes in the air fryer, tasteless except for the seasoning and a mushy consistency. Have some to my neighbour who politely said the next day that she didn’t like my aubergines hahahaa. I am loathed to scrap them and the plants when there are people around the world starving. Does anyone have any suggestions please? Just picked these ones and there are about 30 more growing!

Thanks in advance.

 

@Tinkerbelle61 , those look like German raw sausages

Have you tried pickled Aubergines? They are the only form of Aubergines I eat. In any case, good crying (sprinkle with salt, let the water drain out) is essential to make As remotely edible. OK, I'm biased.

The child makes sort of pure by roasting them and then pureing the scooped out innards with olive oil, garlic and herbs. She says it's very tasty on crackers.

Here's one pickled Aubergine recipe from Pickled Eggplant/Aubergines (Italian Style), google has more:

• 4 long eggplants (thin and shiny aubergines- see photo above)
• ⅛ tsp Kosher salt (to taste)
• 160 ml wine vinegar (strong acidity)
• 80 ml water
• 4 cloves garlic (see note above)
• ½ tsp oregano
• 1 Tbsp olive oil extra virgin (good quality) or more, as needed

Recipe Ingredients

Instructions

• Slice the eggplant into approximately ¼″ (½ cm) thin slices, or julienne if preferred. Place in a colander and sprinkle lightly with Kosher salt. Continue layering the slices and salt, until finished.
• Place a small plate and weight on top of the plate. Make sure to put the colander in the sink or a small bowl underneath to catch the liquid. After a couple of hours, squeeze all the excess liquid from the eggplant and set aside.
• Put the vinegar and water in a small pot and bring to a boil, then add the eggplant. Cook them for approximately two minutes, then drain. Again, squeeze the excess vinegar from the eggplant after allowing them to cool off.
• Place the pickled eggplant in a bowl and add some olive oil, garlic and oregano. Mix well. Don’t worry if there’s not enough oil as the jars. You will fill them with oil later in the process.
• Put the pickled eggplant mixture into clean, dry jars, packing tightly.Next, fill the jar with olive oil. Reach into the jar on the sides with a fork, or long toothpick, to get rid of the air gaps. You really shouldn’t need much oil at all, if the jar is packed correctly. Place the lid on tightly, and refrigerate for about 3 or 4 days before eating. Keep refrigerated after opening.

 

Maybe try them in Mediterranean Liver - you would need the following : Liver, Spring Onion, Garlic, Peppers, Aubergine, Courgette, Tomato, Potato, Mixed Herbs and Red wine. If you want the recipe, PM me.
Altho I've never tried the white Aubergine, the usual thing with them is to salt them, leave for a bit and then rinse and drain. Good luck with finding a suitable use for your massive harvest

 

I've never grown the white ones, maybe pick them a bit smaller and then the skins might be more tender. Most modern varieties of the purple ones are said not to need salting first as that was intended to remove any bitter taste in the old varieties. Sorry can't be more help.

 

Oh wow @Selleri THANK YOU so much for this recipe, I will be trying this and ‘the child’s’ puree too. Thanks for your time in answering.

 

Thanks @Philippa , not sure about Liver but might try with mince beef, I’ll google Mediterranean Liver and see what comes up. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Well if you fancy having a go I’m more than happy to post you the packet, free of charge hahahaaa!! As I doubt I’ll do them next year!


I might try salting them just in case it helps with the flavour, I’ll let you know!! Thanks for replying.

 

@Allotment Boy that's interesting re no salting necessary . I last grew the proper Purple aubergines 5 years ago but not done any since. I still salted those. So many new varieties of stuff coming on the market, it's hard to keep up with any pros and cons.

 

For anyone thinking of trying those white aubergines, don’t!! Salted, oiled and seasoned, roasted and flesh taken out, left with disgusting stuff, no flesh as such just loads of seeds! Never again!!

 

@Tinkerbelle61 - looks like you are right Never really seen the point in breeding White aubergines - much the same as white strawberries and blue tomatoes to name a few weird ones.

 

I cube them and toss in oil and roast, they turn out nice. Or I make a sauce out of them with tonnes of garlic.
I had some nasty ones before though, very bitter.

Maybe yours are too old? the big black ones I think are underripe, the seeds are never developed fully

aubergines dont have many nutrients so its purely for flavour

 

I am a fan of growing yellow, black,purple , bright orange,pink,green and whatever different colours I can get hold of even the white snowball tomatoes.I find they taste different and very nice.
I've grown white aubergine but the round sort.I saved the seed for the next year which was 2024 sowing .they turned out a lovely bright yellow......for some reason !!!!!

 

Sweetcorn is coming now, very nice too. Picked just the one to see how they are going.