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Violetta Lunga Eggplant
Solanum melongena
A beautiful elongated, dark purple eggplant that is an Italian favorite for its delicately flavored white fleshy pulp. Robust plants bear many fruits throughout the warmer months. I grow this crop to connect to my Southern Italian ancestry, and because I love to cook with the long, thin Asian varieties, and appreciate the classic Italian taste of this eggplant!
Days to maturity: 70
Seeds per pack: 40
Planting / harvesting notes
Sow seeds indoors 8-12 weeks before the last frost and transplant into garden well after the danger of frost. 1/4" deep. Keep seedlings moist but do not overwater. Transplants should be initially watered in well, and plants will be most productive with regular irrigation and full sun.
Seed keeping notes
Eggplants are generally self-pollinating, though we isolate different varieties of the same species by 300 feet, in hopes that flying insects will not cross pollinate them unexpectedly. Eggplant seeds are ripe when the fruits get far past their edible stage, and have turned another color, in this case a duller, lighter purple. Cut the fruit, scrape out seeds (perhaps through a heavy-duty screen) into a vessel, add a little water (1-2" is probably plenty) to your seeds and pulp to keep them from drying out, and allow them to ferment away from direct sunlight. Fermentation is not necessary with eggplants, but it makes seed cleaning a bit easier. Ideally, you will stir the concoction every day for 3-5 days. In the end, add more water to fill the vessel, stir one final time, and allow to settle. Pour off the floating material and then strain the seeds through a strainer. Sometimes, you will need to add more water and pour off the floating material several times until the water is clear and you can see the seeds sunken at the bottom. Squeeze dry the strained seeds in a towel, and then lay out to dry on a labeled screen or paper product in a ventilated place away from direct sunlight for a week or two.
Harvest basket photo courtesy of Orsi Balla of BioSzentandrás.
