Anyone try these "red" eggplants yet?

[bzzybee]

http://www.burpee.com/heirloom-seeds...rail=7006:2150


Eggplant, Turkish Orange
A Turkish heirloom producing abundant red-orange fruit.
Native to Turkey, this heirloom variety is a favorite of Italian gardeners and chefs. The petite 18-22" plants produce
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Product Details

Height:
18-22 inches
Days to Maturity:
65-85 days
Sowing Method:
Indoor Sow
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Item # Order Quantity Price
59100A
1 Pkt.
(30 Seeds)

$3.25

[Wi-sunflower]

I grew them many years ago.

They do not get very large at all. Only about golf ball to tennis ball sized at best. Also they have a strong flavor, not mild at all like most eggplant. They are rather similar to some of the eggplant from the Vietnamese growers around here that are also small and strong (bitter) flavored.

I think I only grew them 2 years as no one here liked them.

Carol

[carolyn137]

I've also grown the Turkish orange one and when I had a Master Gardener's group over for a field day thay all thought it was an orange tomato just looking at it.

Most folks don't see them as edible, and I agree.

Favorite of Italian gardeners and chefs? I don't think so and after all it's Burpee we're talking about.

[Zeedman]

I grew them also, and have to agree with the comments thus far. "Turkish Orange" is a different species (Solanum integrifolium) from regular eggplant (S. melongena).

The recommendation is to eat the fruits immature, when still green & milder flavored. Even then, they were too strong for my taste; and as already noted, the yield is not impressive. I noticed one good thing about the plants though - they are more tolerant of shade (and of fluorescent lighting) than conventional eggplant. The leaves are attractive too, resembling oak leaves. With its bright orange fruits, it would make a pretty ornamental in an area with partial shade. You can even dry the ripe fruits on the stem, for flower arrangements. But unless you have a fondness for bitter cuisine, you probably don't want to eat them.

[bzzybee]

Thank you all for responding, this settles it for me, I won't be wasting my time with them. I lived in Italy for many years and never saw them there and we sure ate lots of eggplant...

[Aubergine]

this red turkish aubergines look very nice, but you can not eat them

good italian aubergines i like are per example Prosperosa and Rosa Bianca

[greentiger87]

I've seen them labeled "Pumpkin on a stick"... pretty apt name no?

[Deborah]

I wish I liked eggplant. There MUST be a way... The idea is so appealing but it always tastes metallic to me.

[Redbaron]

Deb,

Since you actually wish you liked it, and presumably would be willing to try it many possible ways to find a recipe you like......

Try the recipe I posted in the recipes section for feta eggplant. So far no one who has yet tried it didn't like it. And I gave it to many who claimed they didn't like eggplant.

But even if you don't like it, all is good. Tastes vary.

[Darren Abbey]

Regular eggplant (Solanum melongena) and the common red eggplant (S. integrifolium) happen to have the same number of chromosomes (24) and will cross according to the research I've been able to find. The cross only works one direction, though I don't recall which way.

What I haven't been able to find is any photos of the F1 plant/fruit, or discussion of what happens in the F2 generation.

I have seeds for both types and hope to set up the cross next season. If I'm daring, I might setup inside lights to do grow a couple of the F1 plants over the winter so I can grow out the F2s the following growing season... time will tell.

Ah, found the link... http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00133296

[Deborah]

Worth a try, Scott. Thanks.

[chancethegardener]

People also use this variety for stuffing in Turkey. I will grow Turkish Orange in 2013 and share seeds.

[clkeiper]

I looked them up in my commercial catalog and it says

"beautiful unique, specialty eggplant variety from Turkey. These insect resistant plans are 20" tall and set huge crops of orange fruit,shaped like small pumpkins. Plant Turkish Orange eggplant and French marigolds for a full season of insect free garden beds or containers. Use mature orange fruits as decorations, The unique fruits are best eaten in the green fruit stage, good for stuffing at the orange stage, wonderful also as a cut flower in bouquets".

This is almost verbatim from my Grimes growers seed catalog, but how you would use them for a cut flower bouquet is beyond me. It would seem to me that they would be a little top heavy and break the oasis if you use them that way.

I hope this helps some. This does not appear to be the pumpkin on a stick variety, though.

[bzzybee]

Lot's of knowledge accumulating in this thread thank you all for responding, I will try them just for the heck of it, I've eaten some pretty weird things and wound up liking most of them...

[Zeedman]

Originally Posted by clkeiper

...how you would use them for a cut flower bouquet is beyond me. It would seem to me that they would be a little top heavy and break the oasis if you use them that way.

For decorations, you allow the fruit to dry on the stem. They are much lighter when dry.

There is another orange-fruited eggplant, Gilo (S. gilo) that has similar uses. There are both wild & domesticated cultivars. Like TO, the fruits are generally eaten when green. Ripe Gilo fruits can also be dried as decoration. Gilo is a little more attractive than TO, since it has a black stem, and the plants are more upright in habit.