ugly ass leaves though, and also less fun fact but ants fucking love these fuckers. You can see two, not pictured are the literal swarm on the ass end of these flowers just going to town on nectar
A member of the Hibiscus family!
I did not know that!
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Love me some fried okrey. I’ve grown okra pretty regularly throughout the years and I’ve never thought to eat them even though I think I knew they were edible. One of the few benefits to living where it’s hot enough to soften asphalt 8-9 months out of the year is two warm weather growing seasons. I’ve had okra get 6’ tall by the end of the first growing season, massacre the plants by chopping them back to about 18" tall with pruning shears and then have a second bumper crop in fall because it’s still hot enough for okra in November.
also the flowers are edible
That I didn’t know. Have you tried them? How do they taste?
As far as I’m aware they are similar to asparagus
I had ants save my okra by turning it into a afid farm one year.
every time I type “ants on my okra” into google it’s all OMG THEY’RE APHID FARMING!!!
and it’s like, no you foul machine, if I saw secondary pests I’d have mentioned them!they just seem to want to slurp up all the nectar in the flowers. At first I thought they were chewing the flowers off but no, every flower is successfully producing a pod before it drops
Oh yeah, I just mentioned it cause the ants def saved the plant. I had written it off it was so bad. Covered with aphids. Then suddenly it started blooming and producing (with the ants of course) and was shocked till I realized what was going on. You mentioning ants loving it made me think of it is all.
ants farming aphids is not a good thing. ants use aphids like cattle, they don’t usually prey on them. it’s kind of a symbiotic relationship.
ladybugs and preying mantis are what you want in your garden.
Yeah i know but in my case there’s no aphids
i did. imo its hard to capture the striking color dynamic in a photo. the deep, dark magenta transitioning sharply into pale yellow. or maybe i was just really blazed to shit on hash that morning it really seared into my memory.
Yeah no they look even better in person. The insides look like plush burgundy velvet
Nope, purple, pink, then yellow.
had to wait a bit, but the okra by me is blooming now too!
Yes, squash too.
mf ants raided my cape gooseberries one year and fucked my shit up. I ended up just using vaseline on the stems of the plants to stop them from climbing up. worked like a charm.
One my favorites; I’m in < zone 5 and while I can’t grow hibiscus in the ground these come back annually! Got a few random things interseeded among the prairie and okra seems to really take to it.
What’s your go to for cooking? Last years pods weren’t very productive but maybe this year I’ll get to experiment
I actually don’t cook a lot of okra because the general consensus is nobody will fucking eat it unless it’s breaded and fried. I think it’s perfectly fine sauteed or braised in the same way you’d treat green beans, like the cinnamon/garlic/tomato braise for loubieh bi zeit i think works well for it.
I just made some creole seasoned black eyed pea stew where i roasted it until toasty and then tossed it in
But yea nobody will eat okra at my job unless it’s breaded which sucks because the pre- breaded okra we buy has fucking milk in it (and of course i’m the only one who notices lol thanks sous chef and chef for not reading labels) and Im really really really bad and inexperienced at breading commercial quantities of shit myself (I don’t know how to avoid it clumping up unless I do small batches and freeze them all individually ahead of time so i’ll be spending like 2 ffucking hours getting okra ready)
The google lying machine just informed me that bhindi fry is a thing though so when i go back i’m gonna experiment with indian stir fried okra
I’m with you there - it’s totally fine fried - but so are most things lol
Creole/cajun style okra is so good though, and actually emphasizes how great of a vege it is; and I’d imagine Indian style is too - that region tends to have cooked veggies down to an art.
Creole/cajun style
this might be a hot take but imo creole > cajun but that might just be because my impression of cajun/creole seasoning is that creole seasoning is cajun seasoning but with herbs added. and imo more flavor, more better
I’d imagine Indian style is too - that region tends to have cooked veggies down to an art
there really does seem to be an almost infinite wealth of shit for me to find out via google and sometimes surprise my indian boss with. it’s good shit
