We also love to pickle okra. Those things are addictive. If you open one jar of them, you cannot resist until they are all gone. I'll have to do a post on how we pickle them. They are delicious! We add cut okra to gumbo, we will also drizzle whole okra with olive oil and add sea salt and cracked black pepper and grill them on skewers - yum! Often when I'm picking them in the garden, I'll grab some small ones and just eat them raw. They are crisp and tasty.
One thing that we haven't tried yet, but I want to, is eating the okra flower. Up to this point, we just let the flower go on and make okra. But I learned that okra is a member of the hibiscus family and the flowers are edible. People add the flowers to salads or the thing we want to try is this: You can stuff the okra flower with herbs, batter and deep fry. Now that sounds interesting!
Edible Okra Flower (Who Knew?) |
The row of okra |
The only things you have to watch out for when harvesting is that it is best to pick them while wearing a long sleeved shirt. Okra can make you itch! Also, fire ants seem to like the sweet baby okra and they'll climb up from the base of the plant all the way out to the young pods. Many days I've been stung by fire ants that have hitch-hiked on the pod and into my shirt. Not a pleasant experience.
Ready for picking |
Washing up the okra |
We'll wash them and eat them. I forgot to mention that okra freezes well. We blanch and freeze them for use in gumbos. I did a post about how we do that earlier and you can see how we do it by clicking HERE.
Okra Shining Brightly |
Okra will always be allotted a row in our garden, if not for its many uses in our kitchen, for its ease in growing and resistance to adverse weather, crop failure, and most pests (besides fire ants).
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