A Late Summer Look at the Garden

On my lunch break today, I googled "weather 70546" (our zip code) and the following came up:

That is hot.  Really hot.  Fall is on the way.  That is what I stay focused on.  The animals are really struggling and the garden has gone into late summer dormancy due to the heat and lack of rainfall, except for our cowpeas. basil, and pumpkins which we've discussed in previous posts.

Today we'll look at a few items that are still battling on.  First thing is our okra.  A substandard germination rate from some seeds that we got at a seed exchange means that we haven't really harvested a bunch to eat yet, but they'll produce into December for us, so I'll withhold judgment.  The variety of okra is a new one for us. It is called Beck's Big Buck Snapping Okra.  Normally, we've always planted Clemson Spineless and Burgundy.  Beck's is indeed big.  They are fat okra - much fatter than Clemson spineless with more defined ridges.  They are called 'snapping' okra because when they are about 3 inches long, they are easily snapped off the stalk - unlike Clemson Spineless okra.

I've always thought that the okra flower is a beautiful one.  If it looks sort of like a hibiscus, that is because the okra and the hibiscus are related to one another. Hibiscus flowers can be used to make tea, so I was wondering if okra flowers are edible.  After searching I found that although okra flowers are lacking in taste, they can provide color to salads.  If it doesn't have taste, I'm not sure I'll add them to a salad and will likely let it develop into an okra pod.

An (edible) Okra Flower

I wish I would have put a penny against the okra pod, so that you can get an idea of the scale, but I didn't.  At first I was thinking that because it was called "Big" okra that it was going to get long and I allowed a couple of pods to get too big and they got 'woody' and inedible, but now I know when they are ready and have been harvesting accordingly.  Turns out Beck's Big Okra is a German heirloom variety that comes indirectly from Comal County, Texas (near San Antonio) and was smuggled out of Germany by a neighbor.

Plump Okra Pod

In a disappointing turn of events, our Black Beauty Eggplant grown from seed has been a big flop. When someone wears jeans, cowboy boots, cowboy hat, and a belt buckle trying to look the part, but aren't really "country," people describe them as being "All hat and no cattle."  That reminds me of our 2015 Eggplant crop.  Oh, they have grown tall and have had lots of foliage but have produced few flowers and not a single fruit up to this point.  Some research revealed that that can be caused by not enough sunlight, too much heat causing pollen to become sticky, or nutritional problems.  Who knows?

All hat - no cattle eggplant

Finally, our Malabar Spinach produces prolifically.  It has climbed all over the trellis and produced many leaves for eating.  Its purple vine and shiny flowers really catch your eye.

Malabar Spinach

They are currently flowering and producing the little fruits that will turn purple and contain the seeds - hundreds of which will fall to the ground and propagate for next year's crop.  Once you get this started, you don't need to save seeds to plant for next year as they come up on their own.  I wasted my time saving its seeds several years ago and now have a container full of Malabar spinach seeds that I'll never use.  Let me know if you'd like some and I can give you some.

Malabar spinach flowers and seeds

The leaves of the Malabar Spinach are shiny, fleshy, and pretty.  We snap them off and eat them as a lettuce substitute on sandwiches or in tacos and we've also steamed them.  Not bad eating at all.

Healthy leaves of the Malabar Spinach 

It is really not a spinach, although it tastes like it when cooked.  It is a perennial vine that originated in India and Bangladesh, so that solves the mystery of why it thrives in hot climates.  That ends the update of the late summer garden. Hopefully, we'll get rain soon and then we can start checking our seed inventory and begin thinking about the fall garden.