<p>First time I tasted okra I was 20, and I fell in love. I love okra, but mostly with tomatoes and in gumbos and jambalayas. I try hard to avoid fried foods, but I can easily imagine that fried okra would be fabulous.</p>
<p>I tried making kale chips last summer, but I used the curly variety of kale it didn’t dry thoroughly. Forgot that I meant to try again.</p>
<p>saintfan : I think I first tried okra when I was in Batonrouge, La when I was in my thirties. It was love at first bite. 
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<p>The same thing with sushi when I first tried it in my twenties. I think sometimes we just have a predisposition to certain foods.</p>
<p>OP: did your “Cajun Delight” okra ever grow? It’s been hot enough even in northern climes this year–hottest July ever.</p>
<p>We’ve been harvesting for three weeks now, but the season is drawing to a close. Thankfully. Our freezer can’t hold any more.</p>
<p>ek: I love kale chips. I make them in my food dehydrator and I honestly prefer them to potato chips.</p>
<p>I harvest the kale from my CSA myself, and fortunately, it seems to do well no matter the weather.
The only problem with the kale chips are that they use A LOT of kale and are so easy to munch away that there never is anything left over.</p>
<p>I love okra. Can’t abide brussels sprouts.</p>
<p>I’ve loved okra since I was small. My folks are from Texas and both grandmoms made great fried okra and I still love that. But as I grew old enough to boil water, I’d just boil it with salt and eat it, then learned Jamaican cooking so use it now in oxtail stew and steamed fish. Recently wrapped some bacon around the pods and cooked in skillet Japanese style, sort of - that was awesome. Have also made Indian and African dishes with it. Actually have never made gumbo but I’m not good with roux :)</p>
<p>Our farmers market has green and purple okra in summer and i buy it every week.</p>
<p>I might be weird, I’ve felt the same way about artichoke since I was little too. Got both kids hooked on chokes, only one on okra though.</p>
<p>Someone asked how to avoid the stringiness and toughness - pick them small. Those things happen when they stay on the plant too long and get too big, they get sort of woody. When I’m at the farmers market I pick out he smallest ones.</p>
<p>I love Brussels sprouts. I dont grow them though. ( try them roasted with balsamic vinegar) But thinking about where and what to put in my winter garden. I know kale/ greens/ leeks- what else?
( also wondering how big my delicata squash plants will get)</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to buy some okra that was picked today. I cut it up and dredged in cornmeal and a little flour and fried it up in my cast iron frying pan (just like my mom and grandmother always did). So good - we love it!! A very popular restaurant serves whole pods lightly fried -also very good. Also had homegrown tomatoes yum!!!</p>
<p>Those who complain about off-the-wall veggies like okra, or eggplant, etc are used to supermarket variety stuff that is largely tasteless.</p>
<p>Try some good organic okra or eggplants from a farmers’ market and see… With tomatoes and rabbit or chicken meat…</p>
<p>^^ mmm little japanese eggplants are a favorite too!</p>
<p>We have employed a painter on and off for years. This year he is painting our lake house and now our primary home as we get it ready to sell after the youngest heads off to college. Yesterday he brought us a huge batch of his home grown okra. I fried up a bunch and it was fabulous (and I never eat fried food). </p>
<p>Tonight I made okra creole by combining a couple of recipes I found online. It includes onions, celery, tomatoes, onion powder, garlic salt, and creole seasoning. One tip I read was to squeeze some lemon juice over it as it is close to being ready to get rid of the slime. It worked wonderfully, and served over brown rice, was INCREDIBLE. I made a chicken breast for DH, but I found the okra over rice to be more than suitable as a main dish.</p>
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<p>I have a friend whose only exposure to vegetables is potatoes, green beans, and corn. That is IT. Maybe once in a while an iceberg lettuce salad with tomatoes.</p>
<p>My d doesn’t have much sun for growing food in her rental, she just sent me a pic of the produce that she recieved today from the CSA that she joined with her boyfriend and his roommate.
I have never seen her so happy about a box of vegetables before!
:D</p>
<p>Okra is delicious. Fried in a little cornmeal. Yumm!!</p>
<p>Rhubarb on the other hand. I cannot understand how anyone can eat that!</p>
<p>mmmmmmm . . . rhubarb . . . . had Rhubarb crisp last night</p>
<p>Rhubarb is delicious.
I use my grandmas recipe, just cook it down like applesauce & eat it on vanilla ice cream
( faster than making pie)</p>
<p>I am going to try rhubarb even thought it will have to come from the Kroger! I like to try new fruits and vegetables (mostly from the Asian markets) but some that have been available for 50+ years I still ignore. I guess they aren’t very fashionable like turnips, parsnips, rutabagas and it is just harder if your mother never made them. Also many times when you do search them out they don’t have very many and they look kind of old and pathetic.</p>
<p>Urban, the ‘Cajun Delight’ was a total disaster. Came to discover that the seedlings bore the wrong name tags at the market where I purchased them. The darn things weren’t okra at all, but rather some kind of weird vine that when mature produced very long thin pods that resemble Chinese string beans. Wasted all that effort and fertilizer [and this season’s hot temperatures] on those pretenders. Next year I’ll stick to seeds from tried and true purveyors.</p>
<p>Put my cool season seeds in the ground [containters] last weekend; Italian Beet, Sugar Snap Pea, Yellow Wax Beans, Parsnip and Bok Choi. Already working on next year’s compost bin.</p>
<p>Am irked–bought what I was TOLD is chives from a farmer’s market. Turns out they are GREEN ONIONS! Pretty irritating, especially since they have the rep as being the most knowledgeable growers at that large fair. Because the plant was young, I couldn’t tell whether it was chives of green onions–now that it’s larger, it’s obviously NOT chives. :(</p>
<p>Perhaps we will start growing things. Our neighbors across the street grow A LOT of produce, as does my dad & some of H’s buddies. Perhaps when he’s not working the crazy overtime he’s been putting in and “retires,” he’ll have more time to putter around in the yard & do other projects.</p>