Shimoda, Eggplant (Solanum melongena)
Japan

The three Japanese varieties in the Culinary Breeding Network (CBN) Collection are the result of a Japanese seed exchange project. CBN Seed Ambassador Shawn Linehan attended two ‘Seed to Plate Tours’ to Japan. These trips were organized by Portland farmer and chef Stacey Givens of The Side Yard Farm & Kitchen to connect urban farmers in Portland with farmers in Japan. Each trip, Shawn took seed from the Pacific Northwest to trade with Japanese farmers and visited a huge seed shop with unique varieties of Japanese vegetables.  The goal was to find and bring back seed of interesting varieties that taste great so regional seed companies, like Adaptive Seeds and Uprising Seeds, could start to produce the seed here in the PNW.
Shimoda came from a commercial seed packet labelled as Shimoda Nasu (nasu means eggplant in Japanese) which was passed along to Adaptive Seeds. It has a mild sweet flavor and dense flesh, suitable for eating cooked or raw. They are most often used in Nasu no Tsukemono (Japanese Pickled Eggplant), of which one variation is a quick pickle in salt and sugar. A traditional Japanese variety of eggplant dating from pre-1860, originating from the city of Shimoda located about 60 miles southeast of Tokyo. Seed from Adaptive Seeds.