Essence of eggplant

Luckily, my aubergine is not maturing its fruit all at once, but in pairs. The first two I gave in a parcel to Kirsten's father, and his partner, Pam, and they made Ratatouille, as I had also included tomatoes, spring onions, zucchini, and capsicum. When my children were young, they would not have a bar of eggplant, hence we invented the concept of "essence" to get them into a lather. This particular plant sure has a bit of get up and go, what with all the flowers it is producing. I am sort of hoping that some will drop off, as I am the only customer under this roof. The plant is about a metre tall and would probably benefit from a cage, too, as the fruit is very heavy and the branches rather slender.