Okra

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Until this summer I had never grown okra. None of my family or neighbors grow okra. I don't see okra at the farmer's market. I figured that it was a social thing: The unknown vegetable that is grown by other people (who must be bad people because they eat different foods than we eat.)

Last winter I received a couple of packets of okra seed in swaps. A few correspondents really wanted me to grow okra. So I broke down and planted a row of okra... That was a few months ago. Today I am officially going to speculate that okra is a bad idea for my garden. The plants have reached a height of perhaps 5 inches and contain around two true leaves. (Those that survived the bugs anyway.)

So I consulted wikipedia which says that "It is among the most heat- and drought-tolerant vegetable species in the world..." I am going to presume from that statement that not only is it a heat-tolerant plant but that it is a heat-loving plant. My garden sure doesn't have what it takes for okra to thrive. And I since it is such a socially out of favor vegetable around here I don't have any inclination to develop a cold-tolerant or short season strain. Imagine that: Biological reasons for a vegetable to be a social misfit.

Sweet potato is another species that falls into that category for us.

[12540dumont]

Joseph,
I planted okra this year as well. The vile voles have loved them.
Ditto the Hanaan Pop Beans.

Last year I did sweet potatoes, man did they ever make vines. It was a race between the squash and the sweets. They also attracted varmints.

So, although I'd love to try pickling okra, I may give up on all 3 of these crops.

Hey, I don't know if you've tried them, but Amy Goldman sent me some seeds from the pumpkin called Winter Luxury. Love this pumpkin, tastes great, is fast fast fast in the garden.

Check this out, I barely have ripe tomatoes and these pumpkins are showing color already. I didn't isolate them, so I don't have seeds. I think this is the fastest pumpkin I've grown. Makes sense, it's a pepo. It's disease free. Makes a terrific pie. It's a good size, not too huge.

Holly

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[mnjrutherford]

Yep, I coulda tol'ya y'all ain't in no kina okrie terr'tory. Gotta be HOT ta grow okrie, real HOT... I kinda think it needs to have a certain measure of humidity, but that's secondary to the heat. It's related to hibiscus. Can you grow cotton?

[12540dumont]

I have grown cotton. It takes a lot out of the soil and it's really no fun to card or spin, it's also hard for me to get seeds of colored cotton here. Although I am not in a cotton growing county, no one has figured that out.

Once again, death by legislation and over ambitious officials. My sister in Oklahoma sent them to me. It was for a school project...not my kids, mine. I was working on my masters in knit wear design. I had this brilliant idea to grow colored cotton and skip the dyeing.

In hind sight it would have been one 'ellvalotta easier to buy white cotton and dye it with natural dyes.

But I never do anything the easy way. I keep thinking I have to know everything about a process. Learn the technique and preserve the knowledge. I'm getting better about this. I realize that I have yet to meet anyone younger than me who gives a darn about spinning, weaving, dyeing, knitting, canning or for that matter farming. So now I learn what pleases me or my lovely spouse.

There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. Vanity of vanities.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Jul 26, 2011 21:50:29 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

Yep, I coulda tol'ya y'all ain't in no kina okrie terr'tory. Gotta be HOT ta grow okrie, real HOT... I kinda think it needs to have a certain measure of humidity, but that's secondary to the heat. It's related to hibiscus. Can you grow cotton?

If I take a compass and draw a circle on a map with my garden at the center, I have to include something like 450,000 square miles of territory before arriving at a location where growing cotton could possibly start to be feasible due to climatic conditions caused by altitude and latitude. I figure I'd have to go about that same distance in order to grow okra. No wonder we don't know what okra is.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

I too have never tried okra, and have a suspicion it's not something i would like to eat anyway.

But, my Devils Claw plants are doing fantastic this year (i planted them with the watermelons), and supposedly they are supposed to taste like okra, so i will try and eat one of the pods to get a rough idea of whether i might like okra or not. Both my parents don't like it, and based on that and the general aversion to it out here as well, i figure i probably don't like okra.

[mnjrutherford]

Come on folks, there are people who don't like corn and tomatoes! Okra CAN be most yummylicious! I promise you! It just has to be prepared properly. It's definitely a long cooking type veggie. It's very easy to grow in those places where it will grow. It has a very good shelf life and can be dried, canned, pickled, or frozen without a lot of fuss.

My most favorite ways of eating are stewed with tomatoes, corn, and cabbage. My grandmother fed me copious amounts of this stuff when I was a kid along with fresh baked cornbread redolent of bacon fat. I'm sure I have a few pounds stored in hip fat....

I'm wondering how old you are Holly because I am dying to learn how to spin and weave. I love to knit. I CAN grow cotton! I will grow cotton again! Just, not this year. I've quite a bit of seed left. I was supposed to send seed out last year and now, I'm wondering if I actually did?

I grew 5 types, 4 long fiber and 1 short. The best was "Super Red" which was remarkably uninviting of insects.

[wildseed57]

aah for the love of okra, I try and grow some each year although i don't have a big growing space for them so I just end up with a couple of quarts of pickled okra and maybe enough for frying or making a nice gumbo or crawdad creole. There is some dwarf varieties that grow well in short cool climits. I have a friend in Minnesota that grows a white podded dwarf variety that does well for him.
About growing sweet potatoes you can grow them in containers, they do best in ones that are painted black if you can't find any black plastic contaners, 15- 30 gallon ones do the best. I grew some plants two years ago and ended up with 40 large potatoes some weighing as much as 5 pounds.
George W.

[rustybucket]

I did grow Okra when I lived in Utah, but we were down in the Salt Lake valley so I don't think the nights got as cool as the upper valleys do. It never got very tall and didn't produce much, but I can say we did grow okra in Utah.

Now if I could just grow onions like they do in Utah...

[12540dumont]

MNJ,
Tomorrow I will send your yarn and seeds. Although I spin very fine yarn now, a friend asked me to spin some extra thick and chunky for a project. This is what's leftover from her request.

I'm 54 all year. And now that you're in the South, you are not supposed to ask.... It's a slippery slope.

Spinning, weaving, dyeing, knitting, sewing, I get about a month now a year to do these things. Yesterday I snuck in a wee bit of fabric dyeing while doing laundry. It's part of a project that has to do with hand printing. I'm making sacks to put produce in to eliminate plastic bags.

The farm takes all most of my time. The rest is spent in trying to preserve the bounty, researching seeds, techniques, and trying to figure out how, when, what I could be doing better....cooking for my family, laundry, cleaning and the rest of being human.

I'd really wish the okra would do better. I love gumbo. Also, okra figures into the thickening of making a great sloppy joe. And who doesn't love a great sloppy joe?

I'm growing Burmese Okra. I figured since the Giant Burmese Honeysuckle ate my fence, the okra would be great. Okay, so okra growers, someone make a recommendation for a good seed or send some or ?

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[sandbar]

Joseph, I plant my okra on black plastic and they do quite well. Our summer nights are probably warmer than yours, though ... usually in the low 60s. The black plastic will heat the soil enough to provide radiant heat at night. My peppers (which also love hot feet) usually survive the first couple of light frosts (30F-32F). But, eventually the soil cools off and they get nipped.

Black plastic ain't organic, but sure saves a lot of weeding and is great for heat loving crops.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I would love to grow some things on black plastic. It's one of those deals though where the price of the materials is higher than the benefit of having produce a few weeks earlier. I could swing a few plants though, just to have earlier things for my CSA baskets.

Due to my clear skies at night, the leaves of my plants experience intense radiant cooling. Due to the very low humidity, they also experience intense evaporative cooling. I loved gardening in Ohio due to the frequent rains and warm nights, but I sure don't miss all the humidity related problems like bugs and molds. (As a sign of how unusual this growing season has been, I actually saw a mosquito this summer.)

[steev]

I've fiddled around with okra to no great success, but I'll give it a fair shot next year since I think it should do well if I put in some effort. I like it pickled, fried, gumboed, or raw in the garden.

Joseph, if it's that unusual for you to see a mosquito, I think you might have been mistaken in your identification; I'll send you some so you can familiarize yourself. Do you prefer the common 1/4" size, or should I send the night-flying woodpecker type?

[mnjrutherford]

Jul 28, 2011 0:11:48 GMT -5 12540dumont said:

MNJ,
Tomorrow I will send your yarn and seeds. Although I spin very fine yarn now, a friend asked me to spin some extra thick and chunky for a project. This is what's leftover from her request.

I'm 54 all year. And now that you're in the South, you are not supposed to ask.... It's a slippery slope.

Spinning, weaving, dyeing, knitting, sewing, I get about a month now a year to do these things. Yesterday I snuck in a wee bit of fabric dyeing while doing laundry. It's part of a project that has to do with hand printing. I'm making sacks to put produce in to eliminate plastic bags.

The farm takes all most of my time. The rest is spent in trying to preserve the bounty, researching seeds, techniques, and trying to figure out how, when, what I could be doing better....cooking for my family, laundry, cleaning and the rest of being human.

I'd really wish the okra would do better. I love gumbo. Also, okra figures into the thickening of making a great sloppy joe. And who doesn't love a great sloppy joe?

HERE IT IS! I read this then didn't have time to reply and couldn't remember where the heck it was!

I turned 52 last month. IT's GREAT! I love being a hag!!!! The FP bozos are not getting any more of my hard earned cash either! WOO HOO! I may be a southern ding dong err... belle, but I don't have any problems with aging. I don't support the cosmetic industry either. I don't need ground fish scales to disguise myself. (Ground fish scales is a common component in many cosmetics)

I bought some bulky yarn just this past weekend to get started on my boys Christmas sweaters. I don't like giving them stuff from the stores. I've also let them know, in no uncertain terms, what I want for Christmas. A wooden box for my pasta maker. They need to get on the stick with my request too! Maybe they can make more than one and sell some at the flea market!

You spend your time doing what I do. I love my life! I have 3 kids, 30 yr old daughter and 2 sons, 11 and 9. The boys are at home, girlie has 3 of her own and lives in Alabama. I home school the guys. I don't have a lot of trouble falling asleep at night! ;o)

As for a thickner... if you don't get the okra, let me know and I'll TRY (remember I'm flake numero uno around here) to send you some file. We have tons of sassafras trees and I just recently learned that you gather and dry the fall leaves for the powder.

[bertiefox]

I always fail with okra and I still don't know what I'm doing wrong. Either outside or in the polytunnel it forms a tiny plant and I get maybe ONE pod after a single flower, and then it dies completely. Yet I've got the closely related Abelmoschus/Hibiscus Manihot growing in the conservatory bed and it's six feet tall and looks like a small Papaya tree! Just WHAT do you need to do to get okra to grow successfully? Why do my plants all die? Our soil is fairly heavy clay and alkaline.