Monday, October 15, 2012

Farewell Okra of 2012

The okra season is a long one--four months here on our hill. We've enjoyed having it with our meals, sharing it with friends and family, and marveling at how well it produces (and really isn't bothered by pests). As a farewell to this vegetable, I thought I'd share that we do indeed eat okra in one of the most traditional ways--fried! We really don't fry much food at our house but a few weekends ago, Ashley cranked up our turkey fryer, using a smaller pot and made us a fried food supper. I'm smiling as I write this because the post I just completed was about how I've been eating salad all the time. Well, sometimes it's good to have some grease :o)

Ashley made catfish bites, fried okra and hushpuppies. Yum! 

I served this with grits, broccoli slaw, and radishes to cut the grease. 

Generally our boys like fried things, like chicken tenders, catfish and hushpuppies. But one thing they both did was pick the breading off the okra! No fried okra for them--they did this at a seafood restaurant a while back, too. Funny. 

But all growing seasons end and we were ready to be done with the okra. The stalks weren't producing as much and the okra growing wasn't as pretty as before (bumpy and funny, curved shapes). Saturday we measured the tallest stalks--89 inches!--amazing for something that grew from a seed. Things like this always remind me of how God provides for us so I looked up some verses about seeds. Read them here if you're interested. 

Our boys are such good workers in the garden, especially the oldest. I gave him the task of cutting down the okra and he neatly chopped them all down at the ground, laid them in a pile and then took them to the goats. 

I tried to get a picture of these two...and they're smiling and saying "CHEESE" but not looking at my camera. As usual. 

I'm so glad we have this garden for our family. Almost every evening Ashley is out there working with the boys and I bring the baby out if I have time after cleaning up from supper and before his bath. We've been rewarded by its bounty and the experience of it all. 

1 comment:

  1. Hi! Found you on Cobble Hill Farm and so glad I did. I love fried okra but haven't had any for a while. Now living in the Midwest, it's a bit unheard of here. ;-)

    Blessings,
    Dianne
    my new blog: www.sweetjourneyhome.com

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