Another reason I love the fall is that I enjoy cooking soups and stews this time of year. It is getting cool enough to really enjoy a nice warm bowl of homemade soup. I have been experimenting with a variety of vegetables and cuts of meat with different combinations of broth.
I ate okra for the first time when I was in college. I attended a university in North Carolina, and I ate frequently in the university cafeteria. I first sampled fried okra there, and then became aware of it being put into soups that I would also eat there. After college I went for a long time without eating it because I did not see it in the grocery stores where I shopped. I noticed it years later in the canned vegetable aisle labeled hot pickled okra and it was packaged in a jar. I ate it crisp out of the jar and loved it. I could also find it in the frozen vegetable section in some stores.
In recent years I began to occasionally see it fresh at various farmer’s markets. Within the past year or two I have begun to shop at international grocery stores. I live within an ethnically diverse area, and I am fortunate to be able to choose between a selection of grocery stores that cater to these diverse populations. Two weeks ago I found a grocery store that had the longest freshest best looking okra I have ever seen. I bought a bunch of it and sliced it up and cooked it with a little oil and salt. Later I added some to a vegetable beef soup that I was making. It was delicious both ways. Today I went back to that same store and bought more of it. This time I took a picture with my cell phone.
Okra has an interesting history in the United States, and the reason I first became aware of it in the southern U.S. is because it has a long history there. I read that slaves brought seeds with them from west Africa. I read that the seeds were hidden within the black braids of the slaves. I will show you a picture of the seeds, and you can imagine how this might have been possible.
Recently I saw a picture of home grown okra from a garden blog newsletter. I also discovered that I can buy seeds from a variety of sources. Now, I have another incentive for trying my hand at vegetable gardening again next spring. The okra flower is beautiful which is another inspiration for me to grow it. I read that it is a member of the mallow or Malvaceae plant family. There is green and purple okra you can grow. I don’t think I have ever eaten the purple okra. Now I am curious.
As a side note that goes off the topic of okra, I will post a picture of lychee fruit that I tried for the first time today. I saw a display of exotic fruits and saw a man picking through the lychee fruit putting many into a bag to buy. I asked him about it, and he said that it grew in his backyard in Hawaii. I asked him what it tasted like, and he said sweet, and then he encouraged me to try one. I have never eaten anything without buying it first. However, I did not want to buy any without tasting it. He told me how to pick out the good ones. I tasted one for the first time with his encouragement. I ended up buying a small bag full. Here is a picture
movingforwardslowly 