Baby Jack eggplant is a variety that will, I’m pretty sure, turn your consumption of eggplant into a near-daily experience. I fell in love with eggplant a few years ago when I had access to a mass planting of it and I had been told to take as many as I’d like. The row of eggplant included several varieties from the thin Asian style to the plump egg-shaped kinds. And because they were different varieties, each was ready for harvest at different times. Needless to say, I ate a lot of eggplant that summer.

Not everyone has room to grow a 40-foot row of eggplant! Even if you have only a small patio, you likely have room to grow an eggplant variety that has been specially bred to grow in containers and small spaces. That’s exactly the kinds of spaces Baby Jack was created for.

Made for Small Spaces

Bred by Syngenta Flowers, Baby Jack is a compact variety reaches that grows to be about 22 in. tall and 18 in. wide. It fits nicely into a 12- to 14-in. patio pot or container. And with its upright habit, you can easily find space for it on a patio, balcony, or other sunny spot where you have limited space.

Baby Jack is also a well-branching plant. That means it produces many offshoots off of a main trunk. The more branches, the more possibilities for producing eggplants.

Small Fruit, Long Harvest

Let’s talk about those eggplants for a moment. Baby Jack fruits aren’t the typical large ovoids that you find at the supermarket. Instead, each fruit is a small, oval to round eggplant that weighs about 2-3 oz. and are roughly 2-3 in. long. Think size of a duck egg, for instance. If you plant a Baby Jack starter plant, expect your eggplant to be producing in just about 2 months. And also expect it to keep producing fruit over an extended period. How long exactly? That all depends on your local conditions. Harvest regularly to encourage the plant to keep producing.

Baby Jack in the Kitchen

When those little eggplants are ready to harvest, put them to work in the kitchen. Their size makes them especially well suited to grilling, roasting, stir-frying, or threading onto skewers. In fact, I prefer the smaller eggplant size so I can make exactly the amount of eggplant I want, rather than having leftover. While leftovers are perfectly fine, I prefer my eggplant warm, and reheating it just isn’t for me.