David wrote:

I grew okra for the first time this year and I am pleasantly surprised
at how attractive and prolific the plant is. I now find myself with a
surplus and none of the neighbours have any idea what to do with it so
just giving it away is a waste. I don't have much experience with it,
what can I make aside from gumbo?

Having spent most of my adult life in Oklahoma (transplanted from
California, but soon to be there again) I have had a lot of experience
with growing okra (and eating it!)

My preferred styles of okra are fried and pickled. Must concur with
whoever said that spicy pickled okra are great in Bloody Marys ....
Much better (to me) than celery or even pickled green beans.

Supplementary question. If you fail to cut them when young, this can
be a matter of one or two days more on the bush, the larger pods get
rather fibrous and full of seeds. Is there any common use for these
(other than compost) that avoids the rough texture?

You have to cut them early. We never found a good way of eating them
when they got all large and tough like that. If there was more coming
on than we could consume, mom would go ahead and prep them for frying
(cornmeal breading) and then would just put the lot in a zip lock back
and freeze it, so we had orka all through the year.

I am really looking forward to vegetable gardening again -- but not
sure if we will have enough room for a large bed of okra. It does take
up space.

Christine will be in town tomorrow night and the place I plan on
taking her for barbecue does a good job with okra.

--Lin