Okra

Just 25 plants??! I can remember many summers when my dad would plant a 100 foot row of it, a variety that we had sorta refined over 30 years or so to have a very heavy yield, with very large pods that remained tender longer and tasted so fine that many friends & neighbors asked for some throughout the season. By about mid-July, we would be cutting a 5-gallon bucket full every 3 days. But we canned and later froze much of it for wintertime feasts.

Yes, Robert, someone's 25 can easily be another's 100. It's all about perspective, and circumstance too.

I do have another seed packet but I did not start it because that particular variety claims 75 to 90 day maturity, which means I'd likely never get okra from it around here. I told my wife to read the fine print when she orders seed...

The two seed packs from which I planted are 55 to 60 days maturity, and I lost nearly half to bad weather and bad, bad slugs--hence, 25 plants that look rather nice right now.

I've got about 25 tomato plants going as well, among a lot of other goodies. It is only my wife and me eating.

Today is okra night at our house! The folks at the farmer's market who carry peppers from July to October showed up for the first time, and they have the most delicate little okra pods I've ever seen. They don't even have ridges, and the longest might be two inches. I think I'll leave them whole in curried okra with cubed tofu.

Edit to add a picture of a few pods, the middle one is about average size for the bunch. At least on my 14" iBook, this picture is life-size.

Is this a different variety? They were delicious whole.
[img]http://nissens.net/images/okra.jpg[/img]

Walt

Just 25 plants??! I can remember many summers when my dad would plant a 100 foot row of it, a variety that we had sorta refined over 30 years or so to have a very heavy yield, with very large pods that remained tender longer and tasted so fine that many friends & neighbors asked for some throughout the season. By about mid-July, we would be cutting a 5-gallon bucket full every 3 days. But we canned and later froze much of it for wintertime feasts.

Yes, Robert, someone's 25 can easily be another's 100. It's all about perspective, and circumstance too.

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek there. In my little urban backyard garden, we have about 25-30 okra plants, which is fine since that is also about enough to feed the two of us. My dad always planted enough to fee the two families that ate from the garden, plus planty to put up for winter, plus some to give away. We also have 6 tomato plants, which with all the rain Oklahoma's been getting are growing like weeds, and one each cayenne and habanero.

Just 25 plants??! I can remember many summers when my dad would plant a 100 foot row of it, a variety that we had sorta refined over 30 years or so to have a very heavy yield, with very large pods that remained tender longer and tasted so fine that many friends & neighbors asked for some throughout the season. By about mid-July, we would be cutting a 5-gallon bucket full every 3 days. But we canned and later froze much of it for wintertime feasts.

Yes, Robert, someone's 25 can easily be another's 100. It's all about perspective, and circumstance too.

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek there. In my little urban backyard garden, we have about 25-30 okra plants, which is fine since that is also about enough to feed the two of us. My dad always planted enough to fee the two families that ate from the garden, plus planty to put up for winter, plus some to give away. We also have 6 tomato plants, which with all the rain Oklahoma's been getting are growing like weeds, and one each cayenne and habanero.

I know you were just chiding...I was just 'splainin' my laziness away...

Have you been flooding where you are?

My friend in OK City said fifteen straight days of rain have fallen there.

On the other hand, we have felt very little water from the sky in quite a long time--yellow grass on the lawn, which is the only benefit of a drought, in my view. Out of the ten worst things one can do with his time, mowing the lawn has to be numbers one through five.

Still, dry and 97F in June, in the Finger Lakes--WOW!

Just 25 plants??! I can remember many summers when my dad would plant a 100 foot row of it, a variety that we had sorta refined over 30 years or so to have a very heavy yield, with very large pods that remained tender longer and tasted so fine that many friends & neighbors asked for some throughout the season. By about mid-July, we would be cutting a 5-gallon bucket full every 3 days. But we canned and later froze much of it for wintertime feasts.

Yes, Robert, someone's 25 can easily be another's 100. It's all about perspective, and circumstance too.

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek there. In my little urban backyard garden, we have about 25-30 okra plants, which is fine since that is also about enough to feed the two of us. My dad always planted enough to fee the two families that ate from the garden, plus planty to put up for winter, plus some to give away. We also have 6 tomato plants, which with all the rain Oklahoma's been getting are growing like weeds, and one each cayenne and habanero.

I know you were just chiding...I was just 'splainin' my laziness away...

Have you been flooding where you are?

My friend in OK City said fifteen straight days of rain have fallen there.

On the other hand, we have felt very little water from the sky in quite a long time--yellow grass on the lawn, which is the only benefit of a drought, in my view. Out of the ten worst things one can do with his time, mowing the lawn has to be numbers one through five.

Still, dry and 97F in June, in the Finger Lakes--WOW!

There is localized flooding in and around Tulsa, but the nature of our weather is that one area may get a downpour, and a mile away may be bone dry. So rainfall totals vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood. This is not the time to be living near a creek, however!

As for mowing, I have been actively shrinking the area of my yard that has to be mowed. In almost 6 years we have owned this house, we have taken out probably 90% of the bermuda lawn area, and put in shrub beds and native / water thrifty perennials. Of course, with all this rainfall, my yard looks like a jungle, and my tomatoes have lomg since topped their cages to the point of almost smothering the bananas in their midst.

Just 25 plants??! I can remember many summers when my dad would plant a 100 foot row of it, a variety that we had sorta refined over 30 years or so to have a very heavy yield, with very large pods that remained tender longer and tasted so fine that many friends & neighbors asked for some throughout the season. By about mid-July, we would be cutting a 5-gallon bucket full every 3 days. But we canned and later froze much of it for wintertime feasts.

Yes, Robert, someone's 25 can easily be another's 100. It's all about perspective, and circumstance too.

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek there. In my little urban backyard garden, we have about 25-30 okra plants, which is fine since that is also about enough to feed the two of us. My dad always planted enough to fee the two families that ate from the garden, plus planty to put up for winter, plus some to give away. We also have 6 tomato plants, which with all the rain Oklahoma's been getting are growing like weeds, and one each cayenne and habanero.

I know you were just chiding...I was just 'splainin' my laziness away...

Have you been flooding where you are?

My friend in OK City said fifteen straight days of rain have fallen there.

On the other hand, we have felt very little water from the sky in quite a long time--yellow grass on the lawn, which is the only benefit of a drought, in my view. Out of the ten worst things one can do with his time, mowing the lawn has to be numbers one through five.

Still, dry and 97F in June, in the Finger Lakes--WOW!

There is localized flooding in and around Tulsa, but the nature of our weather is that one area may get a downpour, and a mile away may be bone dry. So rainfall totals vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood. This is not the time to be living near a creek, however!

As for mowing, I have been actively shrinking the area of my yard that has to be mowed. In almost 6 years we have owned this house, we have taken out probably 90% of the bermuda lawn area, and put in shrub beds and native / water thrifty perennials. Of course, with all this rainfall, my yard looks like a jungle, and my tomatoes have lomg since topped their cages to the point of almost smothering the bananas in their midst.

Yeah, my wife and I are slowly diminishing the lawn area with shrubs, bushes, creeping thyme, lavendar, you name it. I got her to agree when I backed up a cement truck one day threatening to cover the whole lawn...

Today is okra night at our house! The folks at the farmer's market who carry peppers from July to October showed up for the first time, and they have the most delicate little okra pods I've ever seen. They don't even have ridges, and the longest might be two inches. I think I'll leave them whole in curried okra with cubed tofu.

Edit to add a picture of a few pods, the middle one is about average size for the bunch. At least on my 14" iBook, this picture is life-size.

Is this a different variety? They were delicious whole.
[img]http://nissens.net/images/okra.jpg[/img]

Walt

Walt,

There seem to be numerous hybrids of okra on the seed market.

I've got one that is purple...they look martian-like, but they are quite tasty.

I've got one that is purple...they look martian-like, but they are quite tasty.

Yep, occasionally we see those too, though I did a taste-test raw and there was no difference. Not at all expected given the dramatic exterior.

Walt