Making Okra a Weekly Part Of Your DietIf you made it to this page, chances are that you love okra. One thing is for sure. When I was growing up, we all loved okra. We ate it every way you could imagine. My mother would fry it. She'd mix it with other vegetables. She'd bake it. She'd mix it with tomatoes. You name it. We had it. And the thing is, we never got tired of it. Strangely enough, I guess by the time it was my turn to prepare the meals for my own children, this cultural ritual some how got lost in the mix. I don't know if it was because I was just done with okra or if somehow fast food had just taken over. But all of that changed by the time I had put in my second garden and my kids could see the wonderous okra growing in the yard. They were captivated by how fast it grew. Though they were a bit squeamish about picking it, they soon became comfortable... but they did'nt quite share the same ferver we had as kids eating it.That 's when I had a revelation about okra. It's time we got a little more creative with this vegetable. I often wondered if it was nutritious at all seeing as how it tasted so good with plenty of salt and butter. Surely it couldn't be a good for you as something like broccoli or brussel sprouts right? Well it turns out that okra is very rich in vitamin c and it has a healthy dose of vitamin k as well. When you combine this with the fact that okra is a good source of fiber, well you guessed it, we might consider adding okra as a steady part of our weekly diet. Okra is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. The key is to have a decent amount of organic matter in the soil. As well, it should be well drained. Once the okra begins to come on, you need to pick it often. Else you'll end up with large tough okra and for me, that's a non starter. You really want your okra to be young and medium soft.... not hard at all. This is very important. There's nothing worse than tough stringy okra... especially if you are introducing it to children for the first time. I've found that when introducing okra to children, frying it is your best bet. They'll eat it up like pop corn. Another mistake, folks often make is to plant the okra too close together. You'll want to pay close attention to the spacing. In this way, each plant will have plenty of room to bloom and produce. If there are any individuals who have never tried okra and made it to the end of this article, please don't let another day go by without trying them for yourself. If you haven't had okra and tomatoes boiled with season salt, sugar, and pepper, well, you've missed out on a whole lot. |
 
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