The Whole Okra

[Zeedman]

Well... I have more okra than I've ever had, and have been trying to make pickles. Using cold pack, too much air remains trapped in the pods. After the hot water bath, that air results in an excessive gap - up to an inch or more, which leaves part of the pods uncovered by the brine.



Can okra be quick-blanched to remove some of the air from the pods? Has anyone done this? Any tips?

[JRinPA]

This is the best year for okra I have seen. We've been chomping it all down and just started to look into freezing some. I have eaten very little other than okra, corn, tomato sandwiches, and beans for the last 5 weeks.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Zeedman

Well... I have more okra than I've ever had, and have been trying to make pickles. Using cold pack, too much air remains trapped in the pods. After the hot water bath, that air results in an excessive gap - up to an inch or more, which leaves part of the pods uncovered by the brine.



Can okra be quick-blanched to remove some of the air from the pods? Has anyone done this? Any tips?

Never had the problem never hot water bathed them.
Even factory ones have some pod tops sticking out a wee bit sometimes.
I just poured boiling brine on and put the lid on.
Then refrigerate.

[Zeedman]

Not enough room in my fridge for all the pickles I'm making. I tried piercing & quick blanching for 60 seconds, followed by rapid cooling... then packing into hot jars & canning. This seems to have removed most of the air, and the results look good. Time will tell... I'll follow up on this thread later with the final verdict.

[DonDuck]

I want to save seed from my okra this year. Some pods escaped my attention when I was picking and grew to giant pods. They seem to have stopped growing and I am debating removing them and drying them off the plants. The plants with the largest pods have really slowed down in production and I hope to restart them by removing the large pods. Are the seeds in the large pods developed well enough to germinate next spring without drying on the plant?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by DonDuck

I want to save seed from my okra this year. Some pods escaped my attention when I was picking and grew to giant pods. They seem to have stopped growing and I am debating removing them and drying them off the plants. The plants with the largest pods have really slowed down in production and I hope to restart them by removing the large pods. Are the seeds in the large pods developed well enough to germinate next spring without drying on the plant?

You need to let them dry on the plant.

[Whwoz]

Any idea of how many different okra varieties there are folks? It is not a vegetable we see in this part of Oz so I have zero experience growing it and apart from eating it once or twice in Singapore 15 years ago, virtually no experience cooking or eating it. Would be good to give something different a try

[Zeedman]

Originally Posted by DonDuck

I want to save seed from my okra this year. Some pods escaped my attention when I was picking and grew to giant pods. They seem to have stopped growing and I am debating removing them and drying them off the plants. The plants with the largest pods have really slowed down in production and I hope to restart them by removing the large pods. Are the seeds in the large pods developed well enough to germinate next spring without drying on the plant?

In my experience, provided there is adequate space between plants, allowing a single pod per plant to ripen does not noticeably diminish yield. Depending upon how many plants you have & how much seed you intend to save, it might be best to remove all over-ripe pods except for the largest. I am saving seed now, and the plants which have one pod left for seed have remained as productive as those which have been picked clean.


The forecaster whispered the "f" word for northern Wisconsin, which was enough to turn a few leaves brown in my okra patch. That's "f" as in "frost", by the way. The patch is in a sheltered area on the South side of my garage, so I should still get several weeks of good production.

[DonDuck]

I've chosen a plant from two varieties which have large pods on one of the branches. The main stem is still producing pods as are the other branches. I removed some very large pods which seem to be as large as they will get and are starting to turn yellow. I will dry those pods and see if the seed will germinate. If they don't, I still have the other pods on single branches.


Okra is basically a staple food in African countries where they are called Lady Fingers. We have a friend who grew up in Africa. I haven't seen her in a couple of weeks, but I plan on asking her if she would like some Lady Fingers to cook.


I've been giving a lot of okra away because I harvest a lot more than we can eat and I don't want to fill the freezer with okra. I don't know if I lucked out and planted some productive varieties or if I am just an exceptionally good gardener. I probably just lucked out.

[GoDawgs]

The six okra plants had taken a break but they’re now setting a new round of flowers. I really like the Choppee (new to me this year) and it seems to be outproducing the Jing Orange. Next spring I’ll probably do the three Choppee again and three of something new. I’m always looking to add members to the veggie A Team List!

[MrBig46]

I got the seeds of two Okra varieties from Brynn (MdTNGrdner) from Tenessee. This year I grow only one plant per variety (Jing Orange and Beck's Big Buck Horn). So far, Jing Orange is doing better. Since I have only one plant, I could not taste the ocher in the kitchen. And so I only eat raw in the garden. I like it so I count on more than ten plants for next year. I kept some seed pods, but I don't know if the seeds will be germinated.
Vladimír

[MrBig46]

Vladimír

[GoDawgs]

I've grown Jing for four years now. It's always been reliable and I like the fact that the pods can get larger than other varieties and still be tender. More okra for the effort! Before Jing I grew Burmese (both of southeast Asian heritage) which is really similar but a bit more burgandy than Jing's reddish orange. .

[DonDuck]

I grew Bush Cowhorn and Choppee this year. I expected the Cowhorn to outperform the Choppee in production and taste. I was wrong. The choppee has been productive much longer and more consistently than the Cowhorn. It has also remained tender at a larger size than the Cowhorn. I willl probably grow Choppee only next year. Choppee also requires less space than the Cowhorn. It spreads out, but much less then the Cowhorn.

[DonDuck]

Do the colored okra retain their various colors when cooked or do they all become green when cooked?