Okra

Most people have definite opinions about okra…either you love it, or you hate it. I guess it depends, in part, on how you were introduced to this interesting vegetable. If your mother or grandmother always stewed okra, chances are it isn’t one of your favorites. When boiled, it becomes quite slimy…not very appealing to the palate and not very tasty either. If your introduction to okra was in the form of a sliced and fried crispy form, chances are that you would happily eat it like popcorn. Other yummy ways to prepare okra include pickling and cooking it sliced in vegetable gumbo.

My okra patch isn’t very big this year. This was just an experiment to see if it would grow well in the Carolina Victory Garden. The Clemson spineless variety seems to be doing very well.  My grandparents used to grow several rows of okra each year. I remember my grandmother saying that you had to “whip” the okra to get it to bear. She would go out with a short sharp knife and whip the leaves to shred them. I think the issue was that the leaves would grow so profusely that the plant didn’t get sun unless you cut the leaves back  a bit to let the sun in. I haven’t “whipped” my okra, and so far it is doing ok. The bees seem to like it too!