Seriously! Color me happy. I discovered an actual carrot had formed and not the just carrot thinnings that I've been doing for a couple of weeks. I could have let it get bigger, but I was too excited.
I decided to write a blog post about the color purple in my garden this year.
I decided to write a blog post about the color purple in my garden this year.
Last year, I had shades of mostly yellow, red and green in my basket. This year I added purple.
It started with eggplant. I saw some plants at Lowe's. I'd never grown eggplant before, but decided to give it a try.I grew the long slender eggplant and the Black Beauty eggplant.
We did a presentation at the Sierra Club of OKC earlier this year. A couple bought some boxes from us because the man wanted to grow eggplant. I never did hear from them again. I hope he was successful. I know I was. Update: January, 2016...They stopped by our booth at the Home Show. They did grow eggplant and loved their GAB garden.
What surprised me was how fast the plant grew. About six inches in just three days. Another thing that surprised me was how prolific the plant was. I had so many eggplants this summer that I didn't know what to do. That's when I learned about "eggplant" bacon. I love the internet. There is a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips. Who ever would have thought of making bacon out of eggplant, but someone did.
Here is another eggplant bacon recipe for comparison. It recommends salting your eggplant strips for a couple of hours to release excess water and then rinsing your eggplant before you marinate. That is what I did and my bacon was crispy
Eggplant bacon was one of my cool discoveries this summer. It is very easy to make. You can marinate it using whatever seasonings you are in the mood for. Spicy or sweet or both. Put it in the dehydrator to dry. When it's finished, it's crispy just like bacon. Make an "ELT" instead of a BLT. Yum!
A fun discovery for me this year has been purple basil. I grew Genovese basil last year and made pesto. Toasted Walnut Basil Pesto to be exact. It was yummy. When I saw a purple basil plant, I wanted to add that to my garden.
Another purple addition has been Burgundy okra. It's not really purple, more of a red-violet. It's made a pretty addition to my basket, too. I have to say, though that I don't know if I'll grow it next year. It has not been as prolific as my green okra. I'll have to think about that and see if I want to give it another try.
I recently planted Red Leaved Hyacinth Bean, It has lovely little purple flowers and purple seed pods. This is my first time growing this bean. We'll see how it does.
I also have to mention Cherokee Purple , Black Cherry and Indigo Rose tomatoes. I had good luck with them this year and look forward to growing more next year. I will also be adding Black Krim and Purple Calabash to the garden. If you look closely at the picture, you can also see some burgundy okra and a couple of eggplants to add to our purple theme.
I almost forgot to mention Kohlrabi. I only had one plant this year, but it did great. I am definitely going to grow more next year.
So, here is my Magical Mystery Tour of purple in my garden this year. Hopefully, this will inspire you to add the color purple to your garden next year.
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