When to Harvest Eggplant
- Harvest eggplants when they’re company and shiny and large enough to consume—about one-third their most measurement.
- To check eggplant fruit for adulthood, press the fruit together with your thumb; if the flesh springs again it’s inexperienced and now not ripe; in case your thumb leaves an indentation, the fruit is overripe; the most productive tasting eggplant will probably be in between.
- A simply ripe eggplant when sliced could have cushy, well-formed however immature seeds; an immature and unripe eggplant will don’t have any visual seeds; an overripe eggplant could have arduous, darkish seeds. (Seeds forming within the fruit motive the outside to move from glossy to boring.) Each an under-ripe and overripe eggplant will probably be sour tasting.
It’s higher to reap eggplant simply ahead of its ripe than to attend too lengthy.
How you can Harvest Eggplant
- Minimize eggplant culmination from the plant with a lawn pruner or sharp knife. Go away one inch of inexperienced stem connected to the fruit.
- Eggplants are very tough to tug clear of the plant by way of hand; doing so can harm the plant.
How you can Retailer Eggplant
- Retailer eggplants in a room with prime humidity to maintain texture and taste and steer clear of dehydration. The optimum temperature for storing eggplant is 55°F (13°C). At 55°F, eggplants will stay for 1 to two weeks.
- You’ll be able to retailer eggplant within the fridge however now not cooler than 50°F (10°C). Rinse the fruit blank, pat it dry with a kitchen towel, and position it in a perforated plastic bag to stay it from drying out. (Fridges are chilly and dry, now not humid.)
- If uncovered to temperatures under 41°F (5°C), eggplants will increase floor pits, bronzing, brown spots, and rot.
- Eggplant fruit discolors impulsively when reduce open, so it’s very best to make use of it straight away as soon as sliced.
- Keep away from storing eggplants with apples or tomatoes; ethylene (a herbal plant hormone launched within the type of a gasoline) given off by way of the ones culmination will motive eggplants to brown and rot.
Extra pointers: How you can Develop Eggplant.