You really have to have a passion for eggplant to grow it in Minnesota.
The first summer we had a garden, I didn't really put much thought into it. If you've ever planted vegetable seeds before, you know that on the back of the package there's handy information about the germination time and length of growing season. Yeah, I didn't bother to read it. I just plunked the seeds in the ground around Memorial Day and hoped for the best.
By the time the first frost was looming in early October, our eggplants were about 1" long. It took us all summer to grow miniature eggplants - eggplants started from seed need waaaay more time than Minnesota's growing season allows.
Last year I was ambitious and started eggplant seeds indoors around March. Carefully transplanted the baby plants around Memorial Day. Then our son arrived almost two months early in mid-July and our entire garden was a bust. I wasn't around to water, my husband had his hands full already and our neighbor did her best but it just wasn't meant to be.
This year I finally got smart and just bought some starter plants at the nursery. It's mid-August and I already have some awesome sized eggplants ready to pick. YAY! It just took me three years to get here.
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