OKRA, Part ll

"No okra yet!!! not even a flower. Belle"
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It's the same here! I've got 60+ plants of five varieties of okra. They're healthy looking, and they're getting bushy again after two trimmings. They're only about 3' tall, though, even the Cowhorn.

I'm gonna quit worrying about it, keep the plants healthy, and figure they'll grow blooms and pods when they're good and ready. There's still August and September, and I still think we'll be covered up in okra when the time comes.

Ozark,
That's all we can do.Belle

No ones okra has done very good down here this year. Mine is the sorryest ever. It is at least bearing enough for my wife and my needs.

Brother Jim41,
Long time, no talk to! If this heat is any indication of options for my final destination, I, here and now choose Heaven, forevermore!

I have an okra question. My crop seems to be revving up. I'm picking about 5-10 pods every other day. Some of the pods have some splotches on 'em. And, the Red Burgundy has some white pimply nodules. I cut through them, and they're not any insect pods, so is this just an okra "blemish?"

Here's a pic. Hope you can see some of the blemishes.

Hugs!

Linda

I don't know what the spots are. I have never had that. Probably just a blemish of some type.

This is the hottest summer on record for us. We have had 37 days with temps over a hundred. Our hottest was 107 with a heat index of 126.

Wow!

I think I've got an okra breakthrough going - finally! Our hot weather changed, we've had several good rains, and a couple of days in the 80's. I know okra likes heat, but this change seemed to get it going.

Now I've got 2 or 3 blooms and 2 or 3 pods set on every plant, every variety. The pods are just nubs, but I should be able to pick a batch in a few days. If this keeps up, in a week or so they'll be in full production. Woo-hoo!

Shoe, "Betty's White" looks like the most productive variety so far, and the plants are only half the height of the others. I like that.

Ozark,
Where can I get Betty's White seed?. I do not have fruits yet.

"Where can I get Betty's White seed?. I do not have fruits yet."
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Horseshoe was good enough to send me some saved seeds this spring. I don't know of a commercial source, but I found Betty's White Okra mentioned as "an heirloom from North Carolina" in another garden forum.

I'll be saving seeds, especially of that variety. Remind me when the time comes and I'll share.

Glad to hear you are getting some okra, Ozark... My plants just started really kicking in a couple weeks ago and also are shorter than I would have expected. But, I did set them out later than usual. Now they are getting taller by the day, bushing out quite a bit and I have okra that is too big to eat already due to my negligence in picking! I'll be "cleaning them up" this weekend though so I can start harvesting for my winter source.

>>""an heirloom from North Carolina" in another garden forum." Just curious where you saw that. I've shared them with a few other folks over the years. They are also listed with the Southern Seed Legacy (Univ of Ga). And no, there is no commercial source, at least not under that name since I named it after the woman who shared the seeds with me.

Remember, Ozark, okra readily crosses so you might want to hand pollinate a couple flowers and bag them.

Bell, if you'd like some seed I'd be glad to send you some.

Shoe

Shoe, I found it here with a Google search:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/heirloom/msg061307117713.html

The mention of Betty's White Okra is by "GardenLad" in KY, back in 2005. Maybe that's someone you sent seeds to? If so, you've been growing it for awhile.

Funny - I've been visualizing "Betty" as an old lady in NC back in the 1880's who passed this family heirloom okra variety down. Guess not, huh? If the name had been "Ashley" or somethin', I would have figured it was modern. LOL

Okay, "Garden Lad" is a former garden writer and heirloom collector. (I say "former" because I haven't seen any articles by him for a number of years now.) When I shared seeds of Betty's White with him he first wrote about it in Mother Earth magazine in 2002.

I got the seeds from Betty Harrison in 94/95. She'd grown them for decades, carrying on the stock her parents had been growing since 1923 when they received them as a wedding gift, which was normal in those days to help get the "family seed larder" started. Her parents rec'd the seed from relatives who had been growing it since the late 1800's.

Betty heard about me being a "preservist" (her words) and approached me at Walmart, recognizing me from a recent newspaper article about my seed saving/heirlooms. What makes the story of "Betty's White" so wonderful is as we talked over the next few weeks she mentioned where her parents farm was, I mentioned where mine is. It turns out we were both very familiar with the neighbor hood. Why?

At some point in time her parents moved from their original farm to "all the way across town" to a new piece of land, a distance of only 6 miles but I assumed it was quite a ways off back in horse and buggy days. Betty was raised at the new farm, still lives there to this day, and carried on with gardening. The clincher: It turns out my farm (ten acres) is on her parents original farm land, having been divided up. So ya see, Betty's White okra was grown on what is now my land, had traveled across town for decades, then returned back home, now being grown on land where it used to grow back in the '20s and beyond.

Betty Harrison is about 80 yrs old now, still gardening, still growing her okra.

Hope this helps with your accession info.

Shoe

Shoe and Ozark,
I would love some for next year and will email you my mailing address. Belle

Shoe - What a great story! Best wishes to Betty Harrison and her garden. So that white okra strain does come from the 1800's. I'm real glad that she shared it with you and that you've kept it going by sharing with others.

shoe,

What a fascinating history!!! 10 acres?? What do you plant in 10 acres?

Belle

I got my first picking of okra today! It's just a small amount, but all 60+ plants and all 5 okra varieties have pods set on, so I think they'll be in full production very soon.

Shoe, contrary to your practice I'm giving the okra plants another haircut. It's not to increase production (though that would be good), but because they're so doggone bushy. I can't see or get in there to pick!

I put two okra rows, I think, 5' apart - and that was too close. Now the leaves have grown into each other and there's no path in between. I'm breaking off the older leaves so I can see to pick.

I don't know why my plants are so bushy this year. In the past, my okra plants have been pretty much straight stalks with a few leaves. These are looking mighty healthy, anyway - and finally starting to produce.

Here's a single okra row - you see the problem.

My never never get bushy like your. I have just small buds on my okra plant

My production has slowed, so I'm about to do another trimming.

Ozark, I trim mine, especially when the leaves are so big you can't get in there. I just don't trim with the intent of better production. Right now I still have to go trim my rows as well as all the oversized pods off from several days of not picking.

My okra started out slow-growing, too, and fairly short plants. Only now are they getting some size on them (height) and they, too, are fairly bushy. I wonder if its something in the weather this year.

Shoe (off on a whistle pig hunt...it's eating my corn!)

I am enjoying this thread. I was wondering how easy is it to pickle the Okra in small batches?. I saw some at my Trader Joe's and would love to pickle some at home. Since you all are growing alot more than I will buy, what else will you use the okra for?. Looking for ideas for a surprise meal for okra lovers.
Thanks for the help.
Ivy

This message was edited Aug 14, 2011 10:34 PM

There were tons of recipes last year. If you go back on Okra #1 you will see some interesteing recipes. I love pickled okra and are very pricey. I hope ypu can find it. i do not know how to cut and paste.

Belle

If we get as much okra as I'm hoping to, I intend to pickle some. I've never done it, but I make cucumber and beet pickles and it can't be much different - just vinegar and water and whatever spices are appropriate.

My reference on things like that is the Internet. Google "pickled okra recipes" and I bet you'll find a bunch of them!

Shoe - We might be the only ones on here who know what a whistle pig is. I hope you get him!

This message was edited Aug 14, 2011 11:18 PM

i harvested 2 okras but they were already hard but I just microwaved it and ate the seeds!! -- Belle

Belle,
To cut and paste.
►Go to the beginning of the text you want to paste.
►LEFT Click and hold your mouse, then drag it over the text to highlight it (it's usually a blue field).
►Once it's all highlighted, leaving your curser close to the highlighted text, RIGHT Click your mouse and you'll see the option to COPY.
►Select COPY, then go to the page you want to paste your text onto.
►Position your curser where you want the text to appear, then RIGHT click and select paste.
►Your selected text should fall right where your curser is.

Voila!

Try it and let me know if the directions were ok.

Linda

Linda,

I have golf tournament in 2 hours so I will practice when I get home. I thank you and will let you know.

Belle

I usually buy l jar of pickled okra, & after eating the okra, I fill it daily with my picked okra out of my garden. They taste just like the store bought ones. I don't like slimmy okra, & the recipe they use tends to make the okra hard & good. I haven't had the luck of using my own recipe of vineagar & water.

Gymgirl - You're obviously more computer-literate than I am. How do you do those nifty pointy-things you used in your post, above? Thanks.

An okra cooking question - excuse the long story, but it's something I've been trying to figure out and maybe someone here can help:

Dating myself here, but I'm 65 and when I was a kid the Ozark Mountains were still pretty primitive in places. I remember when "modern" in a real-estate listing meant a house had indoor plumbing! So in ways I feel like I've lived in the 19th century and now it's the 21st - culture shock!

My grandma on my dad's side was born in 1881 and she'd been a widow since 1940 (really dating myself now). She's the one who introduced me to fried okra - which I REALLY loved. She grew okra in her backyard garden. She lived in a small town here just a block off the town square, but her house had no running water or indoor plumbing. She did have electricity.

Grandma was a wonderful cook, and she did all her cooking on an enormous cast-iron wood stove that had to date from 1900 or so. I'd go stay with her when I was around 11 or 12, and I'd help her pick her garden, including okra.

She'd have me build a big fire in that stove, to the point that yellow flames came about a foot out of the hole when she'd remove a burner lid. She'd put a big cast iron skillet on the fire and add some oil - I bet it was bacon grease (yeah, I know, we don't fry things in that anymore).

She'd cut the okra up bite-size and I believe she patted the pieces with a towel to get them kinda dry. She'd put flour, salt, and pepper in a brown paper bag and add some okra pieces and have me shake the bag. I don't know if there was also a little corn meal in there or not. The result was that VERY LITTLE breading stuck to the okra, mostly just on the cut ends.

Here's the thing - then she'd add the okra to the hot skillet and that thing was so stinking hot there was almost an explosion. There'd be a big "whoosh" and steam would go to the ceiling! Then she'd stir-fry it for just a short time until the breading was golden brown, and that was it.

Her fried okra was absolutely wonderful. There was very little breading so the flavor of the okra really came through - it'd melt in your mouth. It wasn't a bit greasy because I think the grease was too hot to absorb into the food.

Compared to the fried okra we get today, grandma's was a LOT better. Now there's too much breading and you can't really taste the okra, and it's greasy. I know the solution is to use an oil that can get very hot (peanut oil, maybe?), use little breading, and super-heat the skillet like grandma did. That's hard to do with modern equipment. For one thing, we can't use a cast-iron skillet as it would scratch our flat-surface electric stove. We've never got anything that hot on our stove, either.

Any suggestions, anyone? Heck, maybe I oughta just get a cast-iron skillet, build a big wood fire in the barbecue, and use bacon grease. Grandma lived to be 90+, as did most of the other old-timers in my family who never heard of cholesterol and ate that way all their lives. LOL

Ozark,
You can get to the nifty symbols by using the number keypad on the right of your keyboard!
►Hold down your ALT key, and hit a number, and a symbol will pop up!
►The symbol for the right arrow here is ALT-16.

BE CAREFUL, THOUGH!!! SOME ALT-numbers make your page jump around, if you hit a number that has words on it. Take the number "7" that has HOME on it. If you hit ALT-7, you will jump from the page you're on to the HOME PAGE!!!! (Ask me how I know this...) Same with ALT-1, ALT-3, and ALT-9. These are directional commands if you use them with the ALT key...

So, that's it. Try a couple numbers. I once went from ALT-1 to ALT-60 to see what I'd get. They start repeating at some point!

♥♥♥♥♥

Linda

►Thanks!

I love ALT numbers! ♫♫

Didn't know about the triangle bullet though. Thanks, Linda!

Shoe

KEWL!

Linda,
I did not get home till late and I was totally wiped out because it was cart path only meaning no carts allowed on the fairways because it was wet. This morning I have a game with the girls buddies but I will try the cut and paste tonight I needed to get back to you.

Have a good day!!

Belle

Linda,
I made labels for my home made fig preserves and i cut and paste. I did it as you told me. !!! Thanks. Belle

OK, my okra is finally producing well, all varieties. With 60+ plants and two months to go before first frost we still oughta get loads of it!

But, ya know, I planted it on May 11. Our weather was cold and rainy at that time and only about half of it came up, so I replanted in the gaps on May 24. By my count, this okra is finally getting into production 85 days and 98 days after planting! And no, the older plants didn't start producing 13 days before the younger ones, they all started at once. Strange.

A question about my Cowhorn okra: I'm harvesting all these okra varieties when they're 3 or 4 inches long, young and tender. At that size Cowhorn has no curve to it - the pods are straight, skinny, and green just like Perkins Long Pod. Since Cowhorn is known for its long curved pods, am I picking these too early? That is, will Cowhorn still be tender if I let those get bigger?

(edited to fix a typo)

This message was edited Aug 17, 2011 9:49 AM

I got a 5 gallon bucketful of Cowhorns from a fellow DGer last year. Bagged over 12 freezer gallon bags of em, after I cut them into 1.5" slices. That kept me in okra gumbo all year long!

The pods averaged 8-12" each, and were fantastic! The beauty of growing Cowhorns is that you can harvest them at those longer lengths, and they won't get woody!

Linda

I got a 5 gallon bucketful of Cowhorns from a fellow DGer last year. Bagged over 12 freezer gallon bags of em, after I cut them into 1.5" slices. That kept me in okra gumbo all year long!

The pods averaged 8-12" each, and were fantastic! The beauty of growing Cowhorns is that you can harvest them at those longer lengths, and they won't get woody!

Linda

http://parkseed.com/okra-cow-horn/p/5687/

(Parks recommends harvesting pods at 2-4", but, like I said, my 8-12" pods were not woody!)

I picked okra this morning, and it's starting to bear real good now. With this batch, I looked up a recipe on the Internet and pickled four pints of it.

Pickling okra is simple: Wash it and cut the stems off short, pack it as tight as you can in pint jars and add a half-clove of garlic to each jar. The recipe also called for a teaspoon of dried dill and a small hot pepper in each jar - but I'm not sure I'll like those.

Mix up a brine from 2/3 water and 1/3 vinegar plus a teaspoon of canning salt for each pint. Bring the brine to a boil and pour it over the okra in the jars, filling the jars almost up. Attach lids and bands with the bands just finger-tight. Put the jars in a hot water canner and boil them for 15 minutes, then set them on the counter and let them seal.

Since I had four jars, and I'll be eating these with my lunchtime sandwiches while I'm still harvesting okra - I did each jar a different way. One jar has a half garlic clove only, one has garlic and a teaspoon of dill, one has garlic and a small hot pepper with no dill, and one has garlic, dill and one hot pepper as the recipe calls for. I'll figure out how I like it best, then do more of the same!

Even with 60+ okra plants now bearing, between eating okra fresh both fried and roasted (my wife and I both love it), freezing the excess for the cold months, and now pickling some - we're going to get real good use out of all of it.

This message was edited Aug 19, 2011 3:13 PM

Ozark,
Sounds wonderful!! Next year I will plant t more, i think I have 5 plants.

Belle

I looked for a thread for fig preserves and did not find any. I did several jars of figs this year for fund raising and i already sold 6 pints.We need over $1,000.00 for flu vaccines. cholesterol and diabetic screening, BP checks and 1:1 talk to an MD. We do this 2 x per year and we do over 85 patients. Lot of planning and off course $$$. Any recipes??

Belle

"Put the jars in a hot water canner and boil them for 15 minutes"

Ozark, you might want to sample one of those jars in a week and see how they turn out. Usually canning them for so long will give you mushy pickled okra, not crisp or firm at all.

I tend to have my jars good and hot, still soaking in hot water till I fill them. With the brine of your choice good and hot, stuff your jars, pour the hot brine, remove any air pockets, immediately cap and seal. (Seals must be nice and hot, too, also kept in their warm/hot water.) The jars will usually seal perfectly and the okra pods are nice and firm, never mushy.

Belle, I'll send you my special fig recipe. Taste so good you'll want to double the price of them!
Shoe