If you are concerned about chemicals, try to buy okra from at the farmers’ market, where you can talk to growers about their chemical use. Other pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers are also commonly used to grow it. Sustainability of Okra Pesticidesīecause okra is sensitive to nematodes - microscopic worms that damage roots - some conventional producers may fumigate their soil, a process that also hurts beneficial microorganisms. As they get larger, they tend to become stringy, tough and nearly inedible. Most cooks agree that the perfect pod size is four to five inches long. When shopping, look for firm, springy pods with no mushy, brown or yellowing spots. You may also come across red-podded varieties. Most pods are green with slight ridges, but ridge-less varieties also exist. Different varieties vary in the amount of gumminess, and they may range in size from an inch to over eight inches long (though there is vigorous debate amongst aficionados about the inferior flavor of both teeny tiny and very large pods). Mucilaginous, gummy, slimy: these are all words used to describe the contents of the okra pod, which contains numerous small seeds surrounded by a gooey, sticky substance. <<View All Real Food Encyclopedia Entries By the 19th century, use of the plant was widespread in the US, thanks to the culinary innovations of the enslaved cooks who combined the ingredients and techniques from Native American, African and colonial cuisines into what we recognize as Southern food today. Jessica Harris, cookbook author and expert on food and the African Diaspora, says “herever okra points its green tip, Africa has been, and the trail of trade evidenced by the presence of the pod is formidable.” She explains that the vegetable probably came to the US by way of Louisiana, brought there by the French-owned enslaved people via West Africa or the Caribbean. Alan Davidson notes in “The Oxford Companion to Food” that the plant reached both Brazil and the former Dutch Guiana by the mid-to-late 17th century, and it made its way to the American colonies around the same time Indeed, its link to global trade gets tangled up in the most insidious form of global commerce: slavery. Cultivation spread quickly to North and West Africa, the Middle East and India via established trade routes. But even for people up North, okra is seasonal eating at its best.īotanists believe okra originated in modern-day Ethiopia. Okra is one of the quintessential Southern ingredients, representing so much of the gastronomy of the South, from Creole cuisine to lowcountry cooking.
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