In The Garden: Okra, Anyone?

I love okra.  Absolutely love it.

I know the thought of okra is gross to many people.  Except for the rutabaga, okra might be the most unloved of all vegetables.

That's okay, though.  More for me.

I grew up eating the stuff in Oklahoma.  My grandmother and mother both rolled it in cornmeal and fried it to perfection.

I could eat my weight in fried okra.

I also love it pickled.  And in gumbo.

I bring all this up because I have a bumper crop of okra in my garden right now.  It is threatening to take over the whole thing.

Okra grows like no other vegetable I have ever seen.  It is ridiculously prolific.  I can harvest every pod in my garden today, only to find 20 more pods growing tomorrow.

I planted okra last year, and it grew amazingly well.  This year, I rotated to other crops and didn't plant any.

The okra was having none of that.

Every okra plant in my garden this year -- about 40 total -- is a volunteer.  I know how it happened; during the winter when I was pulling out last year's plants to prepare for spring planting, the pods that were still on the plants had split open to drop their seeds.

They must have dropped a few dozen seeds as I was pulling them out.  Then they waited.

This spring, they had their revenge.  One whole end of my garden is full of okra.

There are a few other volunteer plants in that part of the garden as well.  About six tomato plants are growing, and they are producing a variety of fruit I have never planted.  I'm not sure what happened there.  They might be some kind of open-pollinated cross.  Whatever kind they are, they're delicious.

I also have a few volunteer cucumbers, and also a watermelon.  That whole section of the garden is fantastically healthy, and I think the companion-planted nature of the area has something to do with its health.

Mostly, though, I have okra.  And I am giving it away as fast as I can.  A guy can only eat so much of the stuff.

Kent Chapline has been growing vegetables for seven years.  He finds gardening very therapeutic.  By day, Kent manages the content on CBSDFW.COM.  Everything he wrote here is his opinion only.