2/14/2023 0 Comments Okra plant![]() With plenty of growing season left, the family is curious to see how high these plants will soar. “I’ve also figured out how to freeze it with the batter on it,” Amy said. Like most Southerners, the family prefers to fry their okra. Very mature/old okra is used to make rope and paper.Īt the Lester house, Jason’s wife, Amy Hite, tends to the maintenance of the okra plant, which as of last week, measured 12 feet, 9 inches. Okra seeds can be roasted and ground to form a caffeine-free substitute for coffee, which was often consumed by soldiers during the Civil War. Products of the plant are mucilaginous, resulting in the characteristic slime or “goo” when the pods are cooked. The term “okra” most commonly refers to the edible seed pods of the plant. Several distinct varieties were known in 1806.Īs a member of the mallow family, it is related to such species as hollyhock, cotton and hibiscus. ![]() It was being grown as far north as Philadelphia in 1748 Thomas Jefferson said it was known in Virginia before 1781, and from about 1800 onward numerous garden writers had something to say about it. Strangely, records of okra during early American colonial times are lacking, although it must have been common among French colonists. It had been introduced to the New World, however, before 1658, reaching Brazil supposedly from Africa. It was introduced to North America by the French colonists of Louisiana in the early 1700s. Present-day Southerners know how to cook it with corn meal - slice the pods, dip the pieces in corn meal and fry them. He described the plant in detail, as cultivated by the Egyptians, and stated that the pods when young and tender were eaten with meal. One of the earliest accounts of okra is by a Spanish Moor who visited Egypt in 1216. Okra originated in present-day Ethiopia, in the mountainous or plateau portion of Eritrea and the eastern, higher part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In March, Jason had stopped by Lowe’s and grabbed a packet of okra seeds and hand sprinkled them into the garden, along with some tomato and pepper plants.Įach day as the family ate breakfast, they witnessed the ongoing development of the garden, most notably from the okra plant. "Not a single child or grandchild wanted anything to do with gardening, and I'm sorry it took me 45 years to realize how much it meant that someone would tend to the garden after they became incapable.” "The garden has been so very important to their happiness and a necessity as important as breathing,” he said. This year, their grandson, Jason Wallace, decided to step in and help out to show his love and respect for the people who helped raise him. ![]() The two retired from Georgia Power and the Coweta County School System several years ago but kept a garden until it became more difficult with age. “Our trees provided us plenty of apples and pears for pies, jellies and preserves." “We’ve had running butter beans all the way into November, and I’ve canned hundreds of jars of tomatoes,” she said. Over the years, the couple harvested copious amounts of fruits and vegetables, including butter beans, tomatoes, peppers, apples and pears. “So, every year I would keep building it up with leaves and lime until I had the prettiest garden every year.” “The soil was horrible here,” she remembers.
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