Got Okra?

If you aren’t growing okra in your summer vegetable garden, you are missing out! But it is not too late! Okra is one of my favorite veggies to both eat and grow, so I wanted to show you how you can be successful at growing it in your backyard garden! Be sure to check out my YouTube video here for more information, and at the bottom of this post I have a few tips for cooking it.

Site and Planting Okra

Okra LOVES the heat, and also doesn’t mind humidity or dry conditions, so it makes an excellent choice for us in the south for our summer gardens. It needs a lot of sun, at least 8 hours, and you will want to plant it once it is fairly warm; soil temperature should be at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit and outside temperature should be in the 80-90’s.

These plants do not do well transplanting, so direct sow your seeds outside. Plant them an inch deep, roughly 12-30 inches apart. Make sure you site as been amended with plenty of compost and organic material.

As for water, it likes a deep rinse about once a week. Be sure to mulch around the plants to help maintain moisture, keep the soil cooler and keep weeds at bay.

Okra are super prolific, so one plant can go a long way. For my family of 4, I have planted 8 plants, and that was TOO many! I have been freezing and giving it away all summer. But hey, I’d rather have too many than not enough. Once you plant okra, it will be ready to harvest in roughly 52 days. So in Zone 9a where I plant, you can go from late April through August.

They also get SUPER tall and bushy, so make sure you have plenty of room for them to grow.

Care and Harvest of Okra

Okra don’t need too much attention once they are up and running. Fertilize them once they are sprouting with fish emulsion once a month, and they’ll keep going until it gets cool in the fall.

For picking the pods, you will want to catch them when they are about 2-4 inches long. This may mean you are out there every 1-2 days! If you let them get longer, they lost flavor and get stringy. I don’t find this to be an issue if I am cutting them up to stew or fry, but if you want to eat them whole, you’ll find the smaller ones are more tender and flavorful.

My fave part: Cooking and Eating!

There are numerous ways you can cook okra. It is rich in folate and calcium, even more so than cow’s milk! My favorite ways to eat it are by grilling or baking it whole, making okra “fries”, or fried okra.

Grilling

If you want to grill okra, just wash it off and coat it with olive oil and salt and pepper. Get your grill to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and put the okra on for 12 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Baking

You can bake the okra whole the same as grilling, but I prefer to cut them lengthwise and make okra “fries”. I also add a bit of cumin or curry powder sprinkled on. Place them on a baking sheet with the outside down, and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes, turning them halfway through.

Frying

Probably my favorite way to eat okra is to fry it! I cut it up into small round pieces, dip it in egg/milk mix, and coat it with a mixture of 1:1 flour:cornmeal with some Cajun seasoning like Zatarain’s mixed in. Use your favorite kitchen appliance like a Fry Daddy and cook until browned. So yummy!

Ok, y’all, I hope that was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions below, and be sure to check out my YouTube video to see more!

Happy Gardening!

Dani