Name this flower - Veg Growers.

[1066familyman]

So, without googling, anyone able to name this little beauty?

First time growing it, not with much success it has to be said, but the flower is an absolute stunner!

 

[glasfryn]

Aubergine

 

[El Sid]

okra

 

[Superphil]

Some sort of bean?

 

[1066familyman]

okra

We have a winner.

Have you grown it before? If so, much success.

 

[El Sid]

We have a winner.

Have you grown it before? If so, much success.

Once - needs lots of sun. Not a fan of the taste myself.

 

[fat old seagull]

Is it Okra ?

 

[Nibble]

Tried it on my allotment last year, not great success.

 

[1066familyman]

I had absolutely no idea you could grow okra here! Will have to try this next year.



Zeytin Yağlı Bamya
Firstly, give your okra pods a good wash.
Now, you need to prepare them. Here's the trick: Leave them whole! The mucilage that causes the slime is on the inside of the pods and will not affect your sauce if it can't escape. Slice the stalks off carefully without opening the pod at the top. (See photo above.)

Turkish Recipe For Bamya
This Turkish olive oil dish is really simple to prepare
Now you can prepare the rest of your ingredients.
Gently heat a decent-sized glug of olive oil in a frying pan. (This is a Turkish 'olive oil dish' but we make ours with less oil and more tomato.)
Cut a large onion in half and slice it into half moons. Add to the oil and sautee until they start to go transparent.
Now add your okra (500g) and stir until the oil has coated the pods. (I spotted two or three pods where I had slightly revealed the opening at the top. I was ruthless and fished them out straight away. We don't want slime!)
Deseed and roughly chop a red pepper and add that to the pan. Let that sautee for a couple of minutes.
Now chop 2 large tomatoes, finely slice 2 cloves of garlic and add them to the pan. (We're using the huge summer Turkish tomatoes. If you can't get ripe, red, beef tomatoes, use a tin of tomatoes instead.)
Mix everything together, add salt, pepper, sweet paprika and a light sprinkling of sugar. Half a teaspoon is enough for us.
Turn the heat right down, cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes.

It's our first time growing it and the the plants aren't looking particularly great. The Hungarian Wax peppers with exactly the same conditons are doing fine as usual.

We've had success with, Yacon, Sweet Potatoes (both outdoor and in the polytunnel), Achoca, exploding mini cucumbers/gherkins and also Physalis off the top of my head, but the Okra is the latest experiment. I expect we'll get some fruit off of them though as several are forming ok on some of the plants.


At home we eat Okra soup with pounded Yam or Eba. It's nice, but the sliminess is not my favourite texture it has to be said

 

[1066familyman]

Once - needs lots of sun. Not a fan of the taste myself.

Thanks. We've got it in the greenhouse where it's hot and fairly sunny, but does get some natural shade. Perhaps we'll try it in one of the steaming hot poly tunnels next year then.