A Devonshire senior got an unexpectedly rich harvest as she prepared her vegetable garden for 2024.

Brenda Warren of Devon Springs Road said: “Right now I’m getting ready to plant. I have no new vegetables in my garden yet — I’m just digging it up.”

Clearing her vegetable patch, the 79-year-old discovered a giant eggplant in with regular-sized plants.

The green-thumbed Ms Warren said she had not seen anything close to its size before, well over a foot in length.

Eggplants typically have to be picked earlier rather than later, as the vegetable toughens up and can turn bitter, but this one felt just right.

“I just cleaned it out and there it was,” Ms Warren said.

Asked for her secret, she said she used “just ordinary fertiliser” and kept her plants in pots.

The patch was being cleared for kale, broccoli, mustard greens, tomatoes and onions.

With a surprise extra crop, Ms Warren’s next challenge was how to cook it.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with it,” she said. “Somebody said I should fry it. A lot of people say it’s nice and healthy.”