Free Shipping on Orders Over $ 100 *
client Service|Privacy Policy
Enter your email to sign up for our newsletter and save 25% on your next order
Expert okra partisan Chris Smith write regularly forThe Heirloom Gardener , theMother Earth Newsblog , and theFarmers ’ Almanacblog . His presentation on the versatility of okra have delighted audiences at nutrient and farming festivals and fair throughout the Southeast . He is the Communications Manager for Sow True Seed in Asheville , North Carolina , and dish out on the board of The People ’s Seed and Slow Food Asheville . A aborigine of the UK , Smith has a master ’s arcdegree in creative writing from the University of Manchester . His short stories have been release inNashville Review , Mid - American Review , andThe Manchester Review .
The chase is an extract fromThe Whole Okraby Chris Smith . It has been adapted for the web .
A good friend of mine who extend wild solid food walk is partial of delineate the timberland as a big political party , and he likens waste nutrient identification to meeting new the great unwashed at that political party . Now , if I were at a company , I would never walk up to someone and say , “ Hi , my name ’s Chris , how best can I employ you ? ” I ’d need to get to know the soul , I ’d ask some interesting questions , and we ’d have a conversation . The same is true of plants , and okra is one plant I ’ve met ( in the garden , not the woods ) that I really like .
I grew up in a world void of gumbo ( Southport , England ) , but I receive myself inexplicably desire to encounter it again and again . I had so many questions . As a self - educate botanist , I love the history and the taxonomy and the flora of solid food crop ; I am concerned about climate issues and our continuing power to feed in ourselves healthy and nourishing food . I ’m a nester and a seed rescuer and I love stories . As a white-hot British cat , I am fully aware that okra is not a part of my culture or heritage .
While okra is grown and enjoy around the globe , my experiences with it are in the American South , and so I must always remember and honor all the terrible thing that happened to allow okra ’s presence and my eventual connection with it . I must remember and honor the unbelievable influence of African Americans on our nutrient culture , and okra is just a small part of it .
I am not King Okra, I am okra’s humble servant, and as the stars align I find myself stumbling upon discovery after discovery, story after story, variety after variety, use after use, of this completely amazing crop called okra, gumbo, bhindi, lady’s fingers, and ochro.
Okra lays exact to nutritionary and medicative qualities that continue uncelebrated . It has a panoply of culinary traditions all over the creation . Okra is easy to grow and highly productive . But it ’s the multiple culinary use of a single crop that really appeal to me . Okra is abound in food . I ’m a permaculturist at centre , and I love it when I find lowly , third , and quaternary output from the things I grow : Radish seedpods are spicy and yummy , clavus silk are medicative , broccoli stems are great peeled and roasted .
When it comes to multiple fruit from single crops , I put Hibiscus esculentus on a pedestal and say to all the other vegetables , “ see at the wonderful Okra , you could really discover something . ” With Abelmoschus esculentus , you’re able to eat up the pods , the foliage , the efflorescence , and the seeds .
And we’re not just talking famine food; we’re talking superfood.
The plant is mob with vitamin and minerals and phytonutrients .
Recommended Reads
Fantastic Frozen Fruit smoothy
Elderflowers and bourtree
The Whole Okra
A Seed to Stem Celebration
$ 34.95
Recent Articles
Foraging 101: Where to find your bounty
Do n’t cognize where to start for forage gaga plants ? Read on for the information you demand to get foraging on your own : where to do it and how to be safe .
Farming Against Nature
When you ’re walk around the grocery store looking at the vegetables , it ’s probably hard to envisage that a C ago there was twice the amount of pick .
Zesty & Simple: New Classic Rainbow Coleslaw
Easy rainbow coleslaw ! translate your salad secret plan with this colorful recipe . It is surprisingly tamp down with smell and is a corking addition to your repertory .
Types of Tomatoes: Deciphering the Many Varieties
If you love tomatoes , you probably already know just how many varieties of these summer staple there are . But do you have a go at it what makes each one unique ?
Embracing Sustainable Food Production: Integrating Trees and Crops
Adding the prospicient game of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree to your system result in a deeper and more reliable , live and profound front to your annual veg production .
© 2025 Rizzoli International Publications Inc. All Rights appropriate .
Rizzoli International Publications300 Park Avenue South , quaternary FloorNew York , NY 10010United province
There are items in your basket which are ready to ship.
You ’ll need to checkout before add up this pre - order item to your basket .
