#GROWING OKRA HOW TO#
#GROWING OKRA CRACK#

It’s a warm season vegetable that will flourish. If you have an area that gets lots of sun, start growing okra.

#GROWING OKRA HOW TO#

I can fry it up later, just like I did above and we have okra to enjoy in the winter time.įor information on how to start beginning gardening, click here.įor more easy vegetables to grow from seed, click here.Okra plants are easy to grow and great for beginner gardeners. I also dust it with flour, salt, and pepper, and then toss it in a quart size freezer bag and freeze it. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle on a little salt. Place a few pieces at a time in your pan and cook until golden on the bottom, turn the okra over and brown the other side. When okra placed in the oil begins to bubble, your oil is hot enough. Preheat about 1/4 inch of coconut oil in a pan. To fry it, slice it, then dust it with flour, salt, and pepper. That is definitely the yummiest way to enjoy it. Most of the okra we harvest is eaten fried. Then place the lid on the jar, when it cools store it in the refrigerator. Put the whole pods in a jar tightly packed and add boiling brine. You can pickle okra just like you would cucumbers. The browner you roast it, the less slime it has left.

I heat the oven to 375 and roast until browned. I usually cut it in half lengthwise when I roast it. You can roast okra with olive oil, salt and pepper. It is not slimy if you leave the pods whole until you are ready to eat. You can boil it with some seasoning until it’s tender. There are several ways to prepare okra and all of them are delicious. We grew some gorgeous red okra in our front flower bed one year and it was beautiful. (We seem to have that no matter what type we choose) I like it because it’s easier to prepare it. The Clemson spineless has far fewer of them and none on the pods themselves. It’s a good variety because okra has little hairs or spines that make you itch. Like I said above, there are thin okras such as Clemson spineless.

#GROWING OKRA CRACK#

We crack ours straight down and then twist it off. Some people cut the okra off the stalks and that can help prevent damage to the stalk. For the fatter okra pods, they can go a little longer, but not much. For the small types, over 4 inches and it’s too tough to cut or eat.

Harvesting okra soon enough is really important. Ha! Interestingly enough, okra is delicious raw as well. I do wonder why someone originally thought, look at that weird pod, let’s eat it. When the okra is fried, it’s crispy and tender. Once the okra sprouts, it will grow slowly until the heat of summer rolls in. Plant okra seeds about 8-12 inches apart. In a week or two, you’ll see okra sprouts come up. Fill the hole in with dirt gently and press it down about as hard as you would rub your eye. Poke the seeds into the prepared soil until your first knuckle is just above the soil line. The plant is tall and distinguished and the flowers are gorgeous! Okra plant spacing It’s tall, but it doesn’t need a lot of space in the garden between plants.ĭuring the cooler temperatures of the summer and fall, you will not see a lot of performance out of your okra, but when the days are long and extra hot, it will outperform everything else. This is true for most summer crops and definitely for okra. I heard a grandpa say, first pay your taxes, then plant your garden. When everything else in your garden burns up from the heat, your okra will come alive. If you get it in early, you’re not doing yourself any favors. Okra needs to be planted after all danger of frost has passed. If you don’t spray, you’re not killing the good bugs that could eat the bag ones. You’ll notice if you leave nature to it’s own, it will start to take care of itself. On occasion, we will pick bugs by hand because it’s fun, but these occasions are rare. Sprays, chemicals, or homemade recipes are not often used in our preschool garden. We pretty much let nature take its course. Our basic methods here at Little Sprouts include not much pest management. Ants do some pollinating in the garden, so I just leave them alone. Ants love to eat aphid poo, so an infestation will draw ants. I would assume it’s because there may be aphids on the flowers. They seem particularly interested in the flowers for some reason. I do see a lot of ants on the okra, but they don’t eat it, they just crawl around. I have not seen anything else eat my okra plants. The grasshoppers ate every single leaf on my okra to a nub last year and the okra kept right on producing like it didn’t even notice. From what I can tell, we are gearing up for a repeat performance. Last year, we had a plague of grasshoppers in Oklahoma. Okra is very low maintenance and easy to grow.

Growing okra