This Week’s featured food: Okra!
Okra, related to the hibiscus and a member of the mallow family, is native to tropical Africa or Asia–and was cultivated by the Egyptians in the 12 century AD. It slowly traveled south into the central lands of Africa; north and west to Mediterranean lands and ultimately to the Balkans; and east to the subcontinent of India.
It arrived in the United States in the 18th century with the slave trade, on a ship filled with Bantu tribes people. In no time at all it became a cornerstone in southern cooking, Texan cuisine, and perhaps most especially the distinctive Cajun cooking of Louisiana.
It still grows wild in Ethiopia and Sudan, just as it did in prehistoric times. Its plants, related to cotton, were carried to India and Egypt where they are still used in cooking oil and as a coffee substitute.
Today okra is used commercially as a hidden ingredient: it is the mucilage in catsup that makes it so hard to get out of the bottle.
Join us at Taylor Farmer’s Market this Saturday morning from 8-12 for local, organic produce, eggs, pork, gulf shrimp, breads, jams and jellies, pickled and canned vegetables, as well as beautiful handmade products and kickin’ live music. We’ll bring the okra!
Notes From the Field: Fall Planting and Seed Blocking
Fall planting has begun! Taylor, Dakota, Lauren, and our new, wonderfully hard-working WWOOFers Alex, Alexis, and Nicolas are hard at work preparing the field for fall produce. Our pumpkin and sweet potato plants are sprouting and healthy, and our carrots have just been planted. Meanwhile, we’ve started a shade garden inside our hoophouse for growing baby lettuces and spinach, and have also begun soil blocking cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli seeds.
What is soil blocking? Here’s a helpful video about the process:
Here’s Taylor with our fall seedlings in their cozy soil blocks.
We’re looking forward to starting other fall crops too, and hope you’re excited about the beets, chard, turnips, radishes, asian greens, arugula, mustard, collards, kohlrabi, fall tomatoes, winter squash, and all sorts of herbs still to come!
