We’re launching a fun new campaign here at RCFM, pitting eggplant against artichoke. Team Eggplant looks to well known City of New Westminster Horticulture Manager, Claude Ledoux, for guidance. Claude shares with us his thoughts on his eggplant love. Please leave your support in the comments and let us know why you’re joining Claude on Team Eggplant or why you think Team Eggplant members are misguided. Why do you love eggplant? What makes it superior to artichoke? What is your favourite thing to do with eggplant?

Every year the spring tells the same sad story. My neighbours are planning their vegetable gardens. Next door the windowsills are lined with seedlings of celariac, yu tsai sum, and radicchio. Across the street they are experimenting with kohlrabi, mizuna, and cardoon. I mention eggplants, but my neighbours are not listening. I’ve pleaded, I’ve begged, I’ve wept….. but all in vain. Not one of them has ever grown an eggplant, despite living right next to my all-eggplant garden.

At work it’s more heartbreak for me. When I meet with my crack team of city gardeners, all they can talk about are agastache, asclepias, schizanthus, and cheiranthus. I’ve left my WestCoast seed catalogue open at my favourite section…. page 27, the eggplant page. How can they resist the darkly plump ‘Black Beauty,” the long and shapely ‘Ichiban,’ the streakishly charming ‘Twinkle,’ or the petite and sweet ‘Fairytale’? But somehow, “eggplant” never ends up on their order sheets.

At the city greenhouse, it’s no different. Hanging baskets drip with lophospermum, chrysocephalum, and zauschneria. When I ask the basket designer why no eggplants are included, she just laughs heartlessly. Sometimes, late at night, I sneak into the greenhouse and change the production lists, crossing out “eschscholzia” and subsituting “eggplant.” My alert greenhouse team always spots the change and deletes my so-called “error.” They always have the same excuse – they thought it was a spelling mistake.

Can anyone question the culinary versatility of the eggplant? Or the beauty of them, with their glossy tight skin in colours ranging from creamy white, through pink and mauve, to blackest purple? Sometimes I like to simply cup one in my hands, gazing in wonder at its glistening perfection, and licking my lips as I imagine myself frying it up for dinner. I always keep a basket of eggplants on my office desk to offer to visitors, and I often bring an eggplant bouquet for my hostess when I’m invited for supper. It’s easy to spot me as I go about my work as the city’s horticulture manager – I always slip an eggplant into my buttonhole as I head out the door in the morning. It’s not only beautiful, but it makes a tasty snack when a meeting runs long or I’ve forgotten to pack a lunch. You’ll often see me dashing into city hall or striding into the city works yard in my steel-toed boots, a cell phone in one hand and an eggplant in the other. I’d blush if you knew how often I’ve “answered” my eggplant!

My latest weapon in the eggplant crusade is not a pruning knife or sharpened secataurs. It’s a name change. While idly paging through a British cookbook just the other day, I came upon an intriguing word – “aubergine.” Aubergine, as in “aubergine moussaka” or “aubergine slices in pomegranate juice and pine nuts.” Yes, I am going to adopt this exotic European-sounding name for eggplant. Maybe then someone will listen to me!

We’re launching a fun new campaign here at RCFM, pitting eggplants and artichokes, the two veggies in our logo, against one another. Team Artichoke is represented by Darin, the Executive Chef at local favourite restaurant, The Orange Room. The Orange Room specializes in trying to find as many items as they can sourced from local BC suppliers and creates unique signature dishes. They are “super yum” as far as we are concerned. The Orange Room is family friendly and vegetarian friendly as well. Check out their website for their phone number, address, and all that good stuff.

When the Royal City Farmer’s Market asked me to be their spokesperson for Team Artichoke I only had one question….

Could they have made my job any easier?

To think that an eggplant could be somehow “better” than an artichoke in any shape or form is completely ridiculous.  For starters, let’s compare the two products in their purest form….RAW.  An artichoke tastes fantastic raw, either fresh peeled or canned or in a jar with marinade.  Have you ever tried to eat a raw eggplant?  Don’t bother trying, I can save you the trouble: it tasted like a sponge wrapped in rubber.

From a culinary standpoint, one of the best attributes of an artichoke is it’s diversity.  There is a plethora of ways to prepare and cook them.  Artichokes taste great baked in a tart, grilled, beer battered and deep fried, tossed in a pasta, and of course the ever popular spinach and artichoke dip.  They are a staple in Italian cuisine, and have become extremely popular worldwide in every kind of restaurant.  From family restaurants, to pubs to high en fine dining you will almost always find artichokes in some shape or form in the kitchen.  They also possess great keeping qualities, so you can buy a bulk amount of fresh artichokes and they will remain fresh for about two and a half weeks.

Apart from culinary uses, they are also used to make herbal tea in the Da Lat region on Vietnam, and they are the primary flavouring agent in the Italian liqueur Cynar.  Try making a tea or liqueur based on an eggplant and let me know how that turns out for you…..

One common myth about fresh artichokes is that they are a pain to peel and the only useable part of the artichoke is the heart.  For starters, once you learn the proper way to peel the artichoke it only takes seconds.   Furthermore, almost the entire artichoke is actually edible and/or useable!  The leaves themselves once boiled contain a soft , pulpy and delicious substance.  This pulpy substance also has health benefits, as it helps digestion and is known to lower cholesterol levels.  As well the stem of the plant once peeled tastes exactly the same as the heart of the plant.

Not only are these vegetables delicious but they are also extremely healthy to boot!  Artichokes are a great source of dietary fibre, potassium, Iron, vitamin C, and Vitamin B (1, 2, 3, 5 ,and 6).

The proof is in the facts.  Artichokes not only taste sixteen times better than eggplants, but they are alos diverse, healthy, and have more than culinary applications to offer.  Eggplant lovers can have all the babaganouj they want.  I’ll take any of the hundreds of ways to eat and prepare artichokes any day of the week.