Zeedman
Garden Master
Diamond is a highly prolific, elongated purple Asian-type eggplant - as in Russian Asia. It is completely thornless, and in my Northern garden, highly resistant to disease & cool weather. It is the only eggplant that has proven to reliably tolerate my soil & climate year after year without succumbing to wilt at the first cool snap (had similar problems with okra). The bushes are very stout, and seldom lodge. It will be interesting to see how it performs in a hotter climate.
To freeze them, I wash & steam them with stem attached, allow them to cool, then peel & freeze - still with stem attached - in a single layer on cookie sheets. The cooked & peeled eggplant really stick once frozen, so non-stick pans work best for this. Once frozen, they are chiseled off the pan (I'm only half kidding) and transferred into vacuum freezer bags for storage. We use them all winter; cut lengthwise into fans, egg battered & fried (our favorite); chopped up into omelets; as part of an okra, eggplant, and tomato salad; and added to soups.
Pickled eggplant... hmmm... sounds interesting, thanks for the idea.
Cubanelle is a large (up to 4 ounces) semi-bell pepper, 5-6" long X 2.5" at the shoulder, tapering to a blunt 1" end. The plants were remarkably prolific in my garden, so loaded that they fell over under weight... so some form of support is recommended. Fairly late, which obviously wouldn't be a problem further South. I didn't particularly like the green peppers raw, but they were very good fried. I liked the ripe red peppers better. To be honest, I had so many other peppers that year that I gave most of the Cubanelles away. Can't find any photos in my archive, it seems didn't take many photos in 2014, when I last grew it. I still have a lot of seed from that year; but since I am several years behind in my seed renewals, it is probably of questionable viability.
