Aubergine | Solanum melongena, Solanaceae

Gayle Chong Kwan, Aubergine, collage, 2011

Aubergine
Solanum melongena, Solanaceae

The plant is native to India, it helps to block the formation of free radicals and is also a source of folic acid and potassium.  It is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant. Production of aubergine is highly concentrated, with 85% of output coming from five countries. China is the top producer (56% of world output) and India is second (26%); Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia round out the top producing nations.

Imam Bayildi is the name of a popular Turkish dish that means "the imam fainted". It is made of braised aubergine and meat. According to the legend it was so good that after eating it an Imam passed out.

Achmed Sen, Pyramidengärten

To make a great sataras add a spoon of Vegeta, Yugoslavian dried vegetables, and a spoon of fresh ajvar (a cream of roasted aubergines and peppers with chilli).

Almira-Ada Mesic, Gärten Rosenduft

In this box, onions and garlics have been put side by side. I am not sure that it is a good idea, as they will be "fighting" between them. Usually it is better if you put plants together to have  those that grow differently, for instance, potatoes that grow in the ground can be with aubergines, which grow one metre tall. All these plants have just one cycle of production each year, but in the tropics they can have two or three.

Severin Halder, Allmende-Kontor

Green sauce and cola

herbs for green sauce

The catmint is for the green sauce. I cut several herbs and mix them together into quark, a kind of white cheese, then eat it with cooked potatoes and eggs. It is called grüne sauce and is a typical dish from Hessen, Kassel or Frankfurt. It was Goethe’s favourite food. You also need to add garlic.  Sometimes I also use borage or comfrey, which you can also eat. Comfrey tastes like cucumber. You can put it on burns and make tea from it and  it helps if you have a cold. Comfrey is not traditionally in green sauce, but I use everything that is green and edible. Occasionally I put radish, but it is a little bitter. In former times people placed radish in their prayer books, they would chew it and the bitterness would keep them awake so as not to fall asleep in church.  Jewish people also use radish for Pesach.

brigitte and giulia

You will be surprised when I tell you that I have a cola plant, its not cola, you don't make cola from it, but it smells like coca cola. I always say to the children, tell your parents, they will not believe it.  It really smells like coca cola. I put it into my tea and its very nice. To be truthful, it is actually artemisia aberbraut, but I don't put it in the green sauce, it is not so good. It is bitter, because artemesia is really very bitter. When these plants here grow up, the children will go to their parents and they tell them they are growing plants of coca cola and fruit gum and the parents say: "No, I don’t believe it, you are crazy, you are dreaming about it". But it is real.

Brigitte (Fatima) Kanacher-Ataya, German, Wuhlegärten

 

artemisia