PatKiewicz wrote
Todd said:

This is my first year at "trying" to grow eggplant.
I have never seen an eggplant flower before. Is it
just me, or is that flower the most beautiful purple
dicot flower on the face of this earth?

I've had people visit my veggie garden stop in shocked admiration
at how lovely a healthy, blooming eggplant is. I've seen eggplant
used in a rather whimsical ornamental/edible garden along with
colorful amaranth, kale and Swiss chard. Some varieties of eggplant
have a purple wash to the leaves, and there are varieties with a bright
violet color rather than the classic deep, deep purple purple fruit.

Just out of curiously, how soon will it take
to turn into food.

That's entirely up to the weather and your choices. I need to
grow my own eggplant so I can pick it young, before any seeds
form. So it can be only a matter of days or a week or so before a
faded flower yeilds something I can use. If you are growing a
large-fruited variety and can tolerate a bit of seediness, maybe
a month or so before you get the eggplant of your dreams.

Cool weather slows them down. They really like it warm.

Eggplant being in the nightshade family does most of it's growing at
night... needs hot sunny weather during daytime when it stores energy,
then at night it uses that energy to grow. There are many types of
eggplant, I mostly grow the Chinese and Japanese eggplant, they have
thinner skin and far fewer seeds, I also like their configuration
(long/thin) for grilling.
http://www.foodsubs.com/Eggplants.html
Occasionally I'm treated with a 'girly' eggplant:
http://i57.tinypic.com/2hplwjt.jpg