This article is an excerption from the bookThe Whole Okra : A Seed to Stem Celebration(Chelsea Green Publishing , 2019).Chelsea Green Publishing
In 2006 , at the supply ship historic period of 26 ( not yet woody ) , I live okra for the first time . I was at a roadside greasy spoonful somewhere east of Clayton , Georgia . It was my first time in the United States , visiting an old supporter , Snowy , from Wales . Snowy had been living and working in Greenville , South Carolina , for about five yr . Practically a local , he push a arena of deep-fried okra toward me .
“ It ’s a southern delicacy , ” he said . Smiling .
Snowy was having a caper . The grunge from the lady’s-finger saturated the greaseproof paper . The little round chunk looked like sections of wooden dowel , rolled in sawdust and deeply - fried . The path Snowy was suffocate a jest ; the elbow room he would n’t take the first bite . . .
Okra was not being taken seriously .
It was slimy , greasy and tasteless and only upright for playing tricks on tourists . I did n’t realize the slime at all . Undercooked egg whites , perhaps . stagnate slime or the saliva from the mouth of an extraterrestrial . The filth I know well from back dwelling house . This was soil that had been used over and over . This was degenerate - food grease , cheap and nasty . And the taste ? I call back none .
Chelsea Green Publishing
That was my first experience with Hibiscus esculentus , and I realize why some people never give it a second chance . Some people never give it a first one , such is its repute . I ca n’t tell you how many people responded to the noesis that I was write a book on gumbo with , “ Yuck ! Okra , ” or “ Ewww , slimy . ” In an episode ofGood Eatsdubbed “ Okraphobia , ” celebrity chef Alton Brown pronounce , “ If you do n’t come up a way to tug past this slime business , you ’re function to rue it . ”
You are go to regret it ! Not embracing okra because it ’s slimy is like not claver the Alps because you ’re frightened of top . You ’re missing out on so much because of one small , manageable aversion .
A Second First Impression
In 2012 , six years after my first face-off , I experience okra for the second time . I was back in the U.S. , this time engage to Belle Crawford . Yes , it is true . I married someone from South Carolina called Belle , which technically makes okra the second southern matter I fell in love with . Belle ’s family is from a recollective line of southerners , but they are fain to break in with southern social conventionalism from time to time . That ’s how I found myself ask in ( obligated ) to Belle ’s bridal shower , assist her take part in the awkward ritual of take in and opening present in front of a gang of cleaning woman I did n’t really bed .
One present tense bestowed on us that twenty-four hour period interchange my lifetime . The gifter was Linda Lee , an old school supporter of Belle ’s who worked as a phytologist in Georgia . The gift was a shoebox full of Native American - inspired spices . Being from England , where the internal dish is poulet tikka masala , and having traveled to India , I found the spice exciting enough . But hide out within that shoebox was an riddle : a individual , dried gumbo pod .
India is the leading producer of okra , where it is called bhindi and eaten widely . So there is a chance I may have consume okra , hidden in the depths of a curry , sometime in my past and unknowingly . But it was at the wedding shower that I really know the beingness of lady’s-finger for the first fourth dimension . Linda explained that the pod , which was filled with okra cum , had come from germ she had purchase and acquire from a roadside farm stand in Rosman , North Carolina . The okra had been grown by the sodbuster ’s family and saved by the James Leonard Farmer ’s family , and I now own a patch of that heritage . This little seedpod weigh laborious with responsibility and possibility ; it was a young feel . This was before I started work for Sow True Seed , a minor come caller in Asheville . Before I had a garden to call my own . Those gumbo seeds had a story and , if I pick out , a future . This was nothing like the throwaway goo from Clayton , Georgia . This was serious . I was compelled to grow it , and so I did .
I now remember my wedding day of remembrance by how many days I ’ve been growing that gumbo ( six year ) ; I decided to call it Rosman Wedding . That single seedpod inspired me to dive deep into the earthly concern of okra , perhaps mystifying than any British person has ever gone . I include I am an unconvincing wiz of okra . Garden author and humorist Felder Rushing has begun calling me the Okra King of America ; it ’s a comical joke , but I do n’t lie claim to that title . Nor do I take the enormity of okra ’s chronicle , or its mien in America , gently .
In West Africa , where okra is widely grown , where people were slip and enslaved , the Akan people have a construct of a three - part destiny : okra , mogya and sunsum . One ’s okra is somewhat similar to one ’s soul , and among the Akan it is believed that a person ’s okra receive their fate at birthing , along with certain attributes to aid in that destiny.1
show more : discover how you’re able to farm okra in your garden , too !
An Okra ODYSSEY
It seems that my okra was destine to write a book on okra , and that all the events of my aliveness have moderate me to this point . As a white British guy , I am fully cognizant that okra is not a part of my culture or heritage . I have , however , fallen in love with okra and have tried to approach my Holy Writ with wholeness , and a cryptic appreciation of people and food . While okra is originate and enjoyed around the Earth , my experiences with it are in the American South , and so I must always remember and honor all the terrible things that chance to permit okra ’s bearing and my eventual connection with it . I must retrieve and honor the unbelievable influence of African Americans on our intellectual nourishment culture , and okra is just a little part of it .
I am not King Okra ; I am okra ’s humble servant , and as the stars adjust , I witness myself stumbling upon find after discovery , report after write up , variety after variety , use after usance , of this completely awesome crop called okra , gumbo , bhindi , lady ’s fingers and ochro . But still , I sometimes wonder why am I so unrestrained about okra when the average response is closer to Stephen King ’s , “ Nooo , I do n’t want okra . No gumbo . No . ”2
I know there are a lot of other okra fan , fanatics even , out there . And for many okra is ingrained as part of their history and refinement . The first time I give a introduction titled “ In Defense of Okra , ” the random burst of okra enthusiasm from the hearing surprised , distrait and delighted me . This leger is for all those fans , to vindicate your joy in okra and inspire you to take it to the next spirit level . But this book is also for okra doubters and haters ; in many ways this book is written in defense of gumbo . Chef Virginia Willis tells us , “ Folks hump okra or they detest it . No one — veritably no one — is in the middle . ”
1Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama , eds . , Encyclopedia of African Religion ( Thousand Oaks , CA : Sage Publications , 2008).2Roy Blount Jr. , “ Mad About Okra , ” Garden & Gun , October — November 2012 .
