GARDENING: OKRA

Can the garden afford any thing

 more delightful to view

than those forests of asparagus,
artichokes, lettuce, pease,

 beans and other legumes

 and edulous plants so different in
colour and of such various shapes,

 rising at it were from the dead

 and piercing the ground
 in so many thousand places

 as they do, courting the admiration

or requiring the care of
the diligent Gardiner.

-  Stephen Switzer,

The Practical Gardener, 1727

Okra is a vegetable

we plant every year

and we plant a lot

of it! It is my husband's

favorite vegetable so there

are rows of okra growing

in my fields. Is okra

a  southern thing?  I'm not

sure, but I do know that

it is planted in most

gardens around here.

Okra loves hot, dry weather

to grow and southern summers

are perfect for it.

The leaves of the okra plant

are 'itchy' so you need to wear

long sleeves to cut the

pods. Okra should must be

harvested daily since

the pods double in

size over night and can

become tough and 'woody'

if allowed to grow too

large.

Okra is a vegetable that

can be prepared in many

different ways which I

appreciated since it is

a prolific grower. I love

to roast it in the

oven with just a little

olive oil and salt and

pepper for about 15 minutes.

My husband loves it dusted

with corn meal, salt and pepper

and then deep fried in oil.

 It is great cooked

with tomatoes and

onions and served over

rice or thrown in a pot

of stew or gumbo.

Besides freezing, we

also pickle a lot of

okra which is a nice

change from cucumber

pickles.

What are you growing

this week?

xx