Okra planting

[henless]

How do you fix kale? I can grow it like crazy, but I really don't know how to fix it. Right now I feed it to my chickens.

The okra I planted this year are descendants from Clemson Spinless I bought 4 yrs ago. I have a bunch of it. I don't space mine out at planting. I let it get up a few inches then thin out where it's the thickest. I keep thinning as it grows. Mine got about 7-8 ft tall last year, I had to bend the stalks over to harvest the pods. This year, I will cut them at about 4 ft so that they will branch out and produce more pods.

I like okra in gumbo & soups, fried (the goody always falls off my home fried okra), dried, pickeled, stewed with tomatoes and boiled with salt & butter. It is an acquired taste, but most foods are. It's just yum!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've never had a kale patty, I think that is just someone teasing someone else about eating or not eating it. I do not enjoy it fresh on a salad either. I know some people do.

I boil kale and eat it that way. I'll boil it until it is tender, then drain it. Saute some onion and garlic, being careful not to burn them, then add the cooked kale and cook it until it dries out, constantly stirring. Then mix in some honey, mustard, and vinegar after it has dried out. You can salt and pepper if you wish but I don't think it needs it. I cook a lot of different greens this way. I also add kale or other greens in my vegetable soup.

I do not consider kale a super food. A superfood is something that becomes trendy. It cures the common cold, prevents cancer, and improves your sex life. An added benefit is that it gives the most attractive person where your spouse works and the appropriate sex a big red pimple right on the tip of the nose. A big red nasty pimple with a yellow center that is just dripping oil. Really nasty. And that is with you eating it, not them. A true miracle food.

Like most greens I consider kale a healthy food. Cooked properly I think it tastes pretty good, like most greens.

 

[seedcorn]

@Ridgerunner What? They were kidding all this time? So I can come out now?

Have to say, by doing all that, Kale might be of some value...but again, so is cardboard and you wouldn't have to boil it.

 

[Zeedman]

Late to this thread, took me awhile to read through it.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that so many of you are not normal.

Birds of a feather... probably few on this forum are 'normal' - self included. 'Normal' these days means letting others grow your food.

I keep saying that I want to try okra and never have. I have friends from the south that talk about it all the time like its the best. I hope all who like it get as much as they want of it lol. I still want to try it sometime, but I suspect what they sell at the supermarket is not the high quality stuff.

Agreed, re: supermarket okra. If you find some fresh, count yourself lucky & take advantage of it. It is almost always the same variety too; so some of the unpleasant attributes attributed to okra in general (perhaps falsely) may be due to that choice of variety. There are many other okra varieties, with varying taste & texture... so IMO, okra is one the the vegetables that most benefits from being grown at home. Even in the few varieties I've grown, the taste, texture & degree of sliminess varied considerably. I drove down to Seed Savers Exchange's farm last year, they were growing about 30 okra varieties in one patch alone!

It has been my observation that proper spacing can vary considerable, depending upon the variety & the length of the growing season, among other factors. When I gardened in San Diego, I spaced Clemson Spineless plants 3' apart each way; they became a forest of stalks 6-8' tall, with very few branches, by the end of the season. I never felt itchy from contact with the plants, but the ants which populated those plants did their best to make me feel unwelcome.

Growing okra here in Wisconsin is more challenging. Okra is extremely sensitive to cool weather; most varieties I tried (including some listed as "good for the North") would be weakened by a mid-summer cool snap, and begin to brown & die from the ground up. The wilting usually began, unfortunately, just as pod set had begun, and they died quickly. I finally found a variety ("Pentagreen") that is much more cool tolerant. Some plants still succumb to wilt, but many continue to produce until a few weeks before the freeze. As I've saved my own seed, the wilt resistance has increased, and fewer & fewer plants are lost each year. I've also had good luck planting on the South side of my garage (which gets a lot of reflected heat), and on the South side of tall trellises (such as bitter melon or pole beans) which block the North wind. In those warmer micro-climates, I can grow some of the less cool-tolerant varieties.

Okra plants will never reach their full size here, so they can be spaced more closely; I'm still experimenting. Pentagreen has a strong branching tendency, so if I plant them early, I thin to 2' spacing each way; the branches will form a solid canopy by season's end, and the late harvests are very heavy. If weather delays planting, I space the plants much more closely. Last year, I planted 8-9 seeds in hills 24" apart, and thinned to the strongest 3 plants in each cluster... it resulted in one of the best harvests I've ever had. I let a few hills go with 4-6 plants; while they were not as vigorous & almost never branched, those clusters did produce a lot of okra very quickly.

DW & I love our okra very lightly steamed, and served with vinegar & soy sauce. When everything in the garden begins to bear, we add young steamed & sliced eggplant (cooled) and sliced ripe tomatoes (we like the oxhearts best for this) to make a mixed salad. We also freeze a lot for the winter. This year (weather permitting) I hope to try pickling; I love the store bought pickled okra, would really like to make my own.

 

[thistlebloom]

looked though the family photo album @thistlebloom you have to remember this one. mom telling us we were going over to aunt esters house for kale patties after church and @seedcorn balled all though the service and at aunt esters.

priceless......
View attachment 19959

Ka-ching little bro!

Have to ask, outside of a few crazies, who eats kale patties & likes them? Most eat Kale thinking it's some miracle food-not that they crave Kale.

First of all I can't believe you never heard of McKales Army....what were you doing in that vast wasteland of childhood? And secondly I'm telling mom you think she's crazy. You're really going to feel that spoon this time!

 

[thistlebloom]

Birds of a feather... probably few on this forum are 'normal' - self included. 'Normal' these days means letting others grow your food.

Yes. I was totally kidding. Except about @seedcorn .

I love you all. Even if you do like okra.

 

[Zeedman]

Yes. I was totally kidding. Except about @seedcorn .

I love you all. Even if you do like okra.

Why do I get the impression sometimes that I've walked in between the Hatfields & McCoys, and the shooting is about to get started?

 

[thistlebloom]

Why do I get the impression sometimes that I've walked in between the Hatfields & McCoys, and the shooting is about to get started?

Oh goodness no! Nothing like that. Just a little 'sibling" rivalry. Seed and Major have always been jealous of my garden skills, not that they'll admit it. it just leaks out in various ways, haha!

 

[majorcatfish]

Oh goodness no! Nothing like that. Just a little 'sibling" rivalry. Seed and Major have always been jealous of my garden skills, not that they'll admit it. it just leaks out in various ways, haha!

with that pool of child labor you have every summer who can compete

oh hows this potatoes doing......

 

[Nyboy]

Collar greens was another food I never tried. It is in a lot of supermarkets now. One day I found canned collar greens with southern seasonings. I know can is never the way to judge a food but tried it. I like collar greens , kind of like spinach which I love.