Howdy,
Sorry if this is completely OT, but does anyone here have Okra (Hibiscus esculentus) seeds that they would be interested in swapping me for anything on my Have-list. I really want to grow at least a few varieties of Okra this season, its my favorite vegetable yet I've never cultivated it before. If I can't manage a trade I'm going to buy some strains from Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds along with some other unique heirlooms species. Thanks.
Peace,
Nate
Joy and Lynne, you've got mail. Thank you both very much, if there's anything I have you want to trade just let me know.
Patrick, I'm sorry to hear about your results with this planthttp://www.network54.com/Realm/Bobky/laugh.gif ...Is it just too cloudy in the PNW to get much out of such a heat loving veggie, or were there other factors involved? I'm afraid I'll share you're luck, I'm horriable at growing "easy" plants. I'm like a death sentence for African Violets, so we all have at least one species that just doesn't like us.
Well, there are always trade offs. We grow many wonderful fruits, berries & veggies in our corner of the country...not to mention the wide diversity of ornamental flowers, shrubs & trees. So I take a philosophical view - I know WHERE to go when I need a fried okra fix!
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
You all actually eat that stuff? I grow the red variety because I think it's pretty but I can't get past the texture no matter how it's prepared. It's slimy. Same with Malabar Spinach, a beautiful plant but the same mucilaginous texture as okra.
Karyn
Nate, I have tried all kind of okra. The best without a doubt is Cajun Delight Hybrid. It is a southern thing, right Carrie. You don't have to hold a gun to me, I will eat it anyway you fix it. My wife and kids want touch it, but you fry it and they will eat it all day. Look in Parks seeds for it. it is small compact plants. Okra has to be picked when the pods are about 4" long or it will be like a card board box. It is kind of hard to handle, but slice it and just dip in fish fry and you are ready to go.
It is either a Southern thing or like Patrick, you have to live here long enough to become one of us. I like it even in it's slimiest state, but FRIED ---yummmmm!
Ah Luvs the Stuff! Well, fried anyway! I might get by with eating it in a good gumbo, but don't even show it to me stewed or any of the other slimy ways you can prepare it! LOL I don't want to hear too much talk about okra or I'll be flying off to Dallas.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
I was raised by a southern nanny and love everything but okra (even baby pods) and chitlins. It took 10 years for me to get my NYC husband to eat collards cooked down with smoked ham hocks. lol
Karyn
I love okra, fried is always good, but boiled became my favorite way of having it in my teens. You don't lose the yummy slimy gooey stuff on the inside if you don't cut the pods open.
Patrick, my first try at growing it came out similar to yours, only there were four plants and none of them made it to 6 inches tall. I think they ended up stunted in the little pots before getting put in the ground. Luckily one of them made a tiny pod and dropped seeds which resulted in a much larger plant that produced several pods. I let the last couple ripen to save the seeds before winter.
Lynne, I think they like to be direct seeded, which your experience seems to endorse. I did direct seed mine, but in addition to lack of heat here, my soil is acidic & I read they prefer a sweeter soil.
Carrie, I won't attempt to fly standby during April...Spring Break seems to encompass the whole month nowadays. Nice visual tho, the 2 of us headed toward's Carol's with a big bag of okra to munch on as we go!
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
I direct seed and transplant okra. They do great and usually get to be about 5' tall. I only grow the red variety and have almost 100% germination. I've been collecting seeds from plants I first grew about 5 years ago. The blooms look like yellow hibiscus flowers and the red pods are great in flower arrangements, just not on my dinner plate. lol
Karyn
Okra and chitlins, both are a southern thing, but I have lived all my life in the deep South and I want eat Chitlins. My dad useto eat them, and my mother would fuss about how much they smelled. He ate them fried. Okra is another story , my mother use to put several pods in her peas or butterbeans, and I loved it. It just goes down faster when boiled, but I am one who loves raw oysters . My mother use to take oka,tomatoes,corn and onion and that is the best stuff in the world. Okra will not grow untill the ground is warm and stays warm,it is a form of hibiscus just like cotton . I can't see cotton in Washington. I am sorry but I just can't handle all the cold weather up north. If my family would let me, I would move futher south than here, like New Iberia La. That is one pretty place
Hey, just checked in to see what I have been missing. Haven't been around for a while. Lynne is right about not getting into the slimmy stuff unless you cut into the pod. You can take a whole pod with a little of the stem still attached and fry or sautee in some olive and still get the flavor of fried okra without having to batter and no slimmies. Had some fresh off the stalk for supper tonight and it was good. Gotta try it ya'll.
Even when it's fried it's slimy when you chew it. If I emptied out the inside and just fried the pod I'd probably be able to eat it. It's not the taste that gets me but the texture. I love raw oysters but they don't feel slimy to me, just sort of slippery.
Karyn
Hi! My husband always plants Clemson spineless okra. Nathan, he said to tell you that you can get a bigger crop by always removing the bottom leaves and leaving the top few. It's like priming tobacco. If you do this they will bear until frost. If any of you haven't tried cooking okra with butter beans you need to. Okra give butter beans a fresh taste. In my opinion, fried is the only way!!
Black-eyed peas, also, Melanie. Oh, I do love Southern cooking !!!!! And tell your husband that I agree about the Clemson spineless. I usually do not have to plant okra at all - it reseeds and all I have to do is remove what I do not want.
We just had a few snow flurries, and that makes me doubly glad that my tree tomato plants are still in the plant room. I will put them in the ground next week.
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