This is one of my favourite vegetables, it has been around as long as Cabbages, over 4000 years. It is closely related to the tomato and potato. Egg Plant is native to Sri Lanka and Southern India. It is a short lived perennial, has a pleasantly bitter taste and spongy texture, and are technically a fruit. They have a host of vitamins and minerals. Some famous uses for Eggplant are Moussaka, Turkish imam bagildi ( stuffed eggplant) Baba Ganoush. Try them sliced and char grilled, cut into thick strips, crumbed and deep fried--yum, fried and sauteed. Try them finely chopped, sauteed then added to steamed rice, ( recipe on this site under sides). They go well with other char grilled vegetables;pumpkin, zuccini, sweet potato, capsicum and potato. A few varieties are, Finger or Japanese/Asian, common, striped, baby eggplant, thai and pea. A new variety just coming into the shops is a gorgeous purple and white striped eggplant called Grafitti. On a recent trip to the Victoria Markets in Melbourne we saw a miniature variety of this, keep your eye open for it. I have grown both large and finger eggplant but prefer the finger variety. They take about 10 weeks to flower but once the fruit comes on it really takes off. We ate baby eggplants for 4 months. The large eggplant hasnt been as productive as the smaller variety