This is a titty fruit. Please don’t eat (or suckle) it

Originally published at: This is a titty fruit. Please don't eat (or suckle) it | Boing Boing

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Titty fruit:

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But but, the post cites no less an authoritative source than [drumroll] Wikipedia!

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Join the club! Early human experimental chef was a tough job.

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Hey, who am I to be dismissive of such low hanging fruit?

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You like potato and I like potahtoe
You like tomato and I like tomahtoe;
Potato, potahtoe, tomato, tomahtoe!
Let’s just be careful around the titty-fruit!

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It’s a booby-trap.

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Solanums are so cool! I grew the “easter egg plant” some years ago and really liked it. The white fruits are exactly the size and usually the shape of a chicken egg, so it really looks like you’re growing eggs in the garden.

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:flushed:

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You can see why they called eggplant why they did when you see the original small white ones… I’m guessing you grew the ornamental version?

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Remember the basic rule:

“Shaped like teat
Do not eat”

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To give the OP credit, he’s mastered bait.

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I did. From what I recall, there are two ornamental versions. One is supposedly edible and used as an eggplant while the other is considered ornamental and I saw conflicting sources on whether it was edible or not. Between that and not really trusting the species listed on my seed packet, we didn’t do a taste test.

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Interesting, found this

One thing to bear in mind when buying seeds, especially those sold as ‘Easter egg plants,’ is that there are two main species of white eggplant:

  • Solanum melongena: this is the eggplant we all know and love and the one most commonly used in cooking. All its variations, from Asian eggplants to European cultivars, are hybrids born from this species.
  • Solanum ovigerum: an ornamental eggplant variety, also known as the ‘egg tree.’ It produces small, round fruits that look very much like eggs, and it’s grown as a food crop in parts of Africa. However, there’s quite a bit of debate on whether the Easter egg plant is edible. The fruit is small, crunchy, and bitter, so even if all food experts agreed that you could eat it, it wouldn’t make a delicious meal.

So it does look like the ornamental one is someting else distinct, TIL

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I just checked my database (don’t know why I didn’t think to do that earlier), and I see that I did grow Solanum ovigerum.

But while we’re talking solanums, check out Solanum integrifolium, a.k.a. Pumpkins-on-a-Stick! I grew these another year. They didn’t exactly dry out like gourds but they did look nice enough on the stick to make it through halloween as part of our decorations.

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I feel like I took this conversation in the wrong direction. As an apology, I offer Myrtillocactus geometrizans cv. fukurokuryuzinboku

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OK!
Cpt. Kirk has entered the chat!

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Hmmm…a good pairing or not?

Psychotria elata

Conophytum Pageae

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Do not taunt Happy Fun Hans Bellmer.

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