Summertime Super Crop

Along about this time the garden is baking in the summer sun.  Cowpeas like purple hulls, black-eyes and Ozark Razorback peas are growing and the sweet potato vines are taking over, but most everything else is hot and tired - like me.  Except, of course, the okra.  Okra laughs at the heat.  "Bring it on," it says.  It continues to grow and bear new pods every day and will continue to do so until around December.

We have one row of okra planted right past the sweet potato jungle.  On that row, I have three different varieties of okra planted.  First, we have the old standby - Clemson Spineless.  You can see pods of different sizes on the stalk.  It doesn't talk long to go from a yellow flower to a tender, four-inch pod ready for picking.

Next we have the Burgundy Okra variety.  This variety is burgundy, like its name suggests.  While Clemson Spineless has ridges on the pods, Burgundy is pretty much smooth.  The color is attractive in the garden as both the pods and the stalks are burgundy, but once the pods are cooked, they lose their striking color and turns green like the others

Finally, we have another variety, Beck's Big Okra.  This is an interesting okra with numerous ridges.  It is a fat okra.

I would rank the productive yield as follows: # 1 (by far) Clemson Spineless Okra, #2 Beck's Big Okra, and #3 Burgundy Okra..  Every single day, we go out with a bucket and pick a 'mess' of okra.  You have to be careful as fire ants love to climb up the stalks and eat (I guess) on the okra.  They'll bite you.

We like to cut the okra in half and roast them in the oven with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Also, we cook down sliced okra with tomatoes and onions.  We make a curried okra dish that is very flavorful.  Finally, we oven fry sliced okra with Panko bread crumbs.  We eat a lot of okra.  At some point, we'll start freezing some to get ready for okra to add to gumbos during the winter months.  Winter months.  It is nice to look forward to cooler weather, isn't it?

Okra Coming In Big Time

At this time of year the heat and stink bugs create conditions that are not conducive to gardening.  Most plants, like people, are tired out and exhausted with the heat.  Except for a few things.  Okra flourishes in the heat of summer.  Okra grows tall with healthy green leaves.  It almost creates its own little ecosystem providing shade and a respite from the scorching sun beneath its green leaves.

I employ the "chop and drop" mulching technique with the large leaves on the bottom.  This creates mulch beneath the plants and, most of all, provides an easier way of finding ripe okra pods to pick.  With too many leaves, sometimes it is hard to see the pods to harvest until they have grown so large that they are tough, woody, and inedible.

Okra grows fast!  It doesn't take very long between the beautiful bloom of the okra plant,

Until ripened pods are ready to pick.  Some people pick every other day, but we find that it is better to pick every single day.  If the okra flower above reminds you of a hibiscus bloom, it is because they are in the same family.

This year I planted black-eyed peas beside the okra plants.  Some of them vined, attaching themselves to the okra plants, weaving all the way to the top of the okra.  This trellising on the okra plants makes the ripe black-eyed peas easy to pick - no bending over.  They are right at eye level!

Right now the okra is 10 feet tall and still growing!  It dwarfs anything around it.

Each day we pick a fine "mess" of okra.  Tricia prepares it numerous ways.  We really like them cut up and "oven-fried," but simply 'cooking them down' in a cast iron skillet is a mighty fine way to eat them.  We'll pickle some and cut and freeze some for 'gumbo season.'

I plant three different varieties, and I've picked an example of each below:

Above on the left is the favorite, tried and true producer - the Clemson Spineless.  In the middle is a colorful okra variety - Burgundy Okra.  On the far right is a short, stubby variety with many ridges - Beck's Big Okra.  Other than enjoying eating okra, another benefit is it is incredibly easy to save okra seeds to use for next year's planting.  Simply allow the okra to mature on the stalk.  When dry and brown (but before the pods shatter open, pick and open the pods, saving the multitude of seeds within. 

Harvesting and Cooking Okra

Now that we are getting regular rain, our okra is beginning to produce nicely.  The hot, dry summer really cut our okra yield short.  We'd normally have a lot of okra cut and frozen and/or pickled by now, so we've got to try to make up for lost ground. Okra grows so fast, that you need to harvest it every day or you run the risk of your okra getting too big and the pods will  get "woody" and inedible.

Here is an okra flower.  The bloom lets you know that more okra is on the way.

We grow both Clemson spineless okra, which is green, as well as Burgundy okra, which is... well, you can guess.

Beautiful burgundy okra

It doesn't take long to pick a bucket full to bring inside.

We put them in a colander and wash them up.  Sometimes they'll have bugs, especially ants, on them.  For some reason fire ants are attracted to the okra pods.  They'll climb up the okra stalk and to the pods.  When you pick them, they'll bite you.

Cleaning up okra

In order to prep the okra for eating, I chopped them up in half inch slices.  Normally, at this point we'll cook the okra slices down with onion, tomatoes, and a little lemon juice (to knock down the 'slime' factor). Today, we're cooking them a little differently - Okra Curry, from a recipe that was emailed to me.  We like the bold, spicy taste of it and are always looking for new recipes and new ways to use the fresh produce that we have coming in.  

Sliced okra

We finely mince an onion and a bulb of garlic and saute in butter until they are translucent.  Then we add the sliced okra into the pot and stir.

Now we'll add the fragrant spices.  The recipe calls for a teaspoon of chili powder.  We substitute 1/2 teaspoon of our homemade Criolla Sella pepper for half of it.

To that we'll add 1/2 teaspoon for turmeric

And then we add a healthy dash or two of ground cumin.  To the top of that we finely slice a chili pepper and stir it all up to mix in the flavors.  

We'll cook that over low heat until the okra is tender.  The fragrant dish fills the kitchen with a nice aroma the lures everyone into the room.

Okra Curry

You'll notice that when you cook burgundy okra it turns green.  Regardless what color it is, this is a tasty dish.  Yum!