Bird, I may have mentioned this to you previously but Heather hasn't heard it... Yet.
Shortly after my dad got a job with a major pipeline company (Magnolia Petroleum Co, Mobil Oil the red Pegasus folks) he got promoted from diging ditches and such to "walking the pipeline" where you actually physically walk the route of the buried pipeline looking for evidence of leaks such as discolored vegetation or a pool of black sticky stuff.
Anyway some city folk moved out into the country and built a house. As their place was adjacent to the pipeline he walked right by their house and one spring day they saw him and offered him a glass of water. They chatted and discovered he knew some about gardens so thay asked for planting recommendations. One of the plants he recommended was okra.
Later in the summer he was passing by again and noticed their nice large garden filled with his recommended plantings. He observed the okra going to seed with huge unpicked mature pods and figured they didn't like okra. They saw him inspecting the garden and invited him in for lunch.
He commented that it was too bad they didn't like the okra to which they replied that they didn't like it at first but after they learned to only use the tender young leaves it was pretty good.
He felt compelled to tell them the part everyone else eats and did. He went on to other jobs within the company and didn't ever find out if they liked the pods to eat.
I don't have any family eggplant stories.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]