{"id":6684,"date":"2012-08-29T23:40:59","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T03:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=6684"},"modified":"2012-11-08T20:44:34","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T01:44:34","slug":"a-sticky-slimy-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/?p=6684","title":{"rendered":"A Sticky, Slimy Habit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Let’s do the Okra Cheer: Okra! Okra! OK! Rah! OK! Ra! Go….. OKRA!<\/p><\/div>\n

We’ve been eating okra almost every night for the last two months.\u00a0 The 18 or so okra stalks in the garden, now each about six feet tall (one is eight… like I should write a story: Jack and the Okrastalk), are lined, near bottom to near top, with little dried stubs, the remembrance of all our harvests.\u00a0 If you were to count all these little bits of stem you’d know just how many of these odd green pods my wife and I have consumed this Summer of Okra Abundance.\u00a0 I’m thinking nearly 400 by now.\u00a0 Probably more.\u00a0 The near-daily okra harvests ranged from less than one dozen to two dozen or more.\u00a0 Once or twice I think I picked more than thirty in just one okra patch foray.\u00a0 I wouldn’t want to try to count all the stubs to find out for sure how many I’ve grown so far because okra plants are a sticky, prickly business.\u00a0 The pods and the stems are covered with tiny sharp spines that don’t hurt, really, but certainly don’t tickle.\u00a0 And the plants themselves are slightly sticky all over.\u00a0 Can’t say I love wading into the okra patch with sticks and the pricks on every side, but when I’m savoring the lightly fried fruit of my labor I think, gosh, it was worth it.<\/p>\n

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Impossibly prolific<\/p><\/div>\n

Okra is a surprisingly lovely plant, first cousin to a hibiscus.\u00a0 I first saw that beautiful\u00a0 plant in Florida or the Bahamas or some other similarly tropical place.\u00a0 Hibiscus flowers sit like bright surprises on lush, green bushes and are made to go with gins and tonics served pool-side on long, lazy days reading a book under the shade of a very large umbrella.\u00a0 But now, Lo!, my okra patch is dotted with a half dozen or more creamy yellow hibiscus-esque blooms, exquisite, with a velvety royal maroon center complete with a golden scepter of a stamen.\u00a0\u00a0These exotic flowers here in the\u00a0humid heat of a Virginia summer stay pretty for about six hours, then fold up and wither.\u00a0 When you squeeze the spent, rolled-up-like-a-cigar bloom you feel a certain stickiness.\u00a0 Ants crawl up and down okra stalks in lines, I suppose, to enjoy a drink of their own, little gins and tonics.\u00a0 Maybe an okra stalk is a summer resort for hard working ants, a sweet interlude between frenzied bouts of toil.<\/p>\n

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A glorious trinity.<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the nutritional value of okra.\u00a0 I googled it like anyone else would.\u00a0 It doesn’t take an okra googler long to get the idea that this green odd pod is quite a healthy thing to eat.\u00a0 Good for losing weight, for reducing cholesterol, and, of course, reducing your risk of cancer.\u00a0 Very low in fat and high in vitamins A, B complex, C, and K, not to mention iron and calcium, this miracle fruit can also help keep (or make) one who eats it regular. (Did I just write that?\u00a0 Forgive my indelicacy.)\u00a0 So why am I still so amazed I like the stuff?\u00a0 Why do so many people I mention okra to tell me they don’t care for it?\u00a0 Because of the unfortunate word, mucilaginous.\u00a0 Okra is slimy.\u00a0 We all know it.\u00a0 I’ll just admit it.\u00a0 But listen: we’ve found ways to reduce or even eliminate (!) the slime.\u00a0 One is to soak it in vinegar before cooking.\u00a0 Another is to eat it young and small, easy to do if you, like me, grow it yourself.\u00a0 And it’s excellent, like in gumbos and the wonderful fresh tomato and okra stews the missus makes, for thickening.\u00a0 I’ve gotta say we love it so much, we hardly notice the slime any more.\u00a0 Do you still respect me?<\/p>\n

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Okra growers know there is a God. How else could such a randomly lovely flower become a spiny, slimy taste treat?<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m being honest.\u00a0 We’ve got an okra habit and are dreading the end of the season, even while the stalks are still producing dozens and dozens a week.\u00a0 It’s almost the start of September here and I know from years past, let the night time temperatures get below sixty, let the days become beautiful late-summer low 80s, and the okra will turn off like someone here mashed the off button.\u00a0 So, like people who know but deny the inevitable end, we rush home from work each day and first thing after shedding the suit and tie, the nice dress and heels, grab the clippers to snip yet more lovely okra appetizers.\u00a0 So we beat on, okra harvesters against time’s current, borne back ceaselessly into a past summer of okra abundance.<\/p>\n

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We’ve been eating okra almost every night for the last two months.\u00a0 The 18 or so okra stalks in the garden, now each about six feet tall (one is eight… like I should write a story: Jack and the Okrastalk), … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69],"tags":[1049,70,1053,1052,600,1051,1050],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6684"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6813,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684\/revisions\/6813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}