Okra. Most people either adore it or abhor it. You have to hand it to a vegetable that manages to be slimy, crunchy, prickly, and edible all at the same time.  

As a child growing up in the North, I had no clue whether it was fish, fowl, friend or foe when I first encountered the word "okra" in a cookbook (This, to the amusement of my southern born mother.) My first taste came only after I had moved to Oklahoma, where I met it in a tasty stewed okra-tomato-onion dish at a potluck. Aaah… what had I been missing?! From there I discovered fried okra, gumbo and pickled okra. My current favorite recipe is less well known, and the simplest of all; eat it raw. An esteemed friend finally cajoled me into trying this, and I was won over immediately. Make sure you have very fresh, young pods. They are wonderfully mild, crisp and moist - the perfect munch-your-way-through-the-garden snack. Okra has visual appeal as well; slice up a pod and you'll have a cutting board full of little wheels, with a single pale seed nestled between each spoke. At 3-4 calories per pod, fat-free, and chock full of amino acids and minerals, what more could one ask for?

Okra is a star in the summer garden, a consolation prize for surviving July and August in Oklahoma. Plant in May when soil and air temperatures have warmed up, and begin harvesting in two months or less. Harvest frequently, at least every other day; okra pods grow quickly and will rapidly turn woody. Test it with a knife; it should cut like butter. Although thorniness has been bred out of okra over the last hundred years, the plants have short hairs that may irritate bare skin. Wear gloves and long sleeves when harvesting if you are sensitive.  Okra is a generous plant; the more you harvest, the more it will produce.

Okra provides a beautiful and dramatic touch to the landscape. It is a member of the Malvaceae family, along with cotton and hibiscus, and shares their showy, cup-shaped flowers. Some varieties will reach heights of ten feet; plant a dwarf variety that matures at three feet for easier harvesting! The burgundy varieties are especially striking, with red-veined leaves and deep-red pods pointing skyward.

As summer wanes, the decrease in daylight hours triggers a drop in pod production. Okra is an easy candidate for seed saving, and the dry pods perform double duty as ornamental centerpieces during the cold months, reminding us of next summers' bounty. 

History of Okra

Okra's origins are a bit murky. Its birthplace is believed to be Ethiopia and the Upper Nile, where it can still be found growing wild. One scenario is that from there it hopped the narrow Red Sea into Arabia, whose inhabitants carried it with them when they invaded Egypt in the 7th century. Supporters of this theory note that Egyptians of the 12th century used an Arab word for okra, and no sign of okra is seen in ancient Egyptian paintings.

From there, it appears to have traveled on around the Mediterranean as well as eastward to India; again, the absence of any ancient Indian names for okra suggests that it arrived there in later times.

Its arrival in the New World has been associated with the slave trade. It is known to have arrived in Brazil by 1658, and Louisiana by the early 1700s. No city loves okra better than New Orleans, and it is featured extensively in French/Cajun cooking. But whether it arrived there via Brazil, directly from Africa or the West Indies, or with French colonists, is a mystery.  

Love Your Food
Just as The Body Shop's slogan is "Love Your Body", so I would say "Love Your Food". Years ago I happened onto the practice of pausing before eating, and imagining the life of the foodstuffs on my plate. This was easiest when I knew my food - when it came from our garden, where I had watched it sprout and grow and mature. 

What a pleasure to recall the quiet of the early morning as I filled my colander with salad greens, choosing from an array of colors, textures and shapes. Or to remember hungrily waiting for that green bell pepper to slowly blush into a deep, sweet red. Or to be humbled by the generous bounty of baskets full of peaches, all from one small tree.

A garden does not have to be vast or time-consuming in order to be satisfying. One basil plant in a pot in a sunny window provides the chance to witness the glorious process from seed to food. A neighbor once told me she pitied me, watching me water and weed my garden every morning, until she planted her first tomato seedlings and realized she couldn't wait to visit them each day to see how they were growing!

We are physically and spiritually related to the living world around us, and I believe we each have a soul hunger to know our relations, to feel part of a greater whole. Growing even a small portion of our own food connects us with what is real, timeless and alive.

Bon Apetit!

Exhibits & Classes

City Arts Center on the Fairgrounds
My adult weaving classes at City Arts Center resume October 11. The 8-week session runs through December 8, on Tuesdays from 7-9pm or Thursdays from 10am-Noon. Cost is $104 for beginners, all supplies provided. Call 951-0000 to enroll. 

If you’d like to learn more about the City Arts Center weaving classes, come to our Weaving Studio Open House on Tuesday, October 4th from 6-8pm. Our beautiful studio will be filled with weaving and spinning demonstrations, a display of handwoven items, sample looms for you to try out, plus refreshments and door prizes. All ages are welcome!

I was honored to receive Best of Show for this quilt in Fiberworks at City Arts Center in OKC this spring.  

Oklahoma City Museum of Art
Photo Transfer Workshop: Stretched, Draped and Folded Photos
Discover the potential of cloth as a surface for photography. Explore the heat transfer method, experimenting with unique qualities of form, movement and translucency that are possible when combining cloth and imagery. Saturday, Oct. 22, 10am-4pm. $40 museum members, $50 non-members.

The World of Pop-Up Cards & Books
Learn to make cards that flip, twist and wiggle. We’ll have fun, make cool cards, and learn the principles of pop-up constructions. Sunday, Nov. 13, 1-4 pm. $20 museum members, $25 non-members. Enroll for either OCMA workshop by calling 236-3100 x 213 or okcmoa.com.

Bethany Library
A Taste of Weaving
Hands-on program for 6-12th graders. Saturday, Nov. 12. I’ll have a variety of small looms and each youth will get to weave one or more take-home items. No cost but please call 789-3231 to enroll.

University of Central Oklahoma
Please join me for the opening reception of the exhibit "Women Who Eat Leaves" on Thursday, Oct. 13 from 4:30 to 7:30pm at the University of Central Oklahoma, Donna Nigh Gallery, Fourth Floor Gallery. My photo quilts and photo/fiber constructions will be on display, along with the beautiful work of Abi Chodoff, Connie Seabourn and Asia Scudder. Exhibit runs through Nov. 3.

St. Louis, Missouri
I'm very pleased to have my photo/fiber construction "Remembering" accepted in Fiber Focus 2005, which will be held at Art St. Louis from Sept. 16 to Oct.28.

Quilt National
I had a wonderful time in Athens, Ohio in May for the opening of Quilt National '05, an international biennial competition dedicated to promoting the contemporary quilt as an art form. My quilt "A Salad Ballad" was one of 80 art quilts accepted. The exhibit will travel for the next two years, and has also been published in a full color book by the same name. 

Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition
12x12 Silent Auction, benefit for Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Sat. Sept. 24, 7pm at the Sonic Headquarters on Bricktown Canal. Tickets are $24-$30, call 232-6991 or ovac-ok.org. My artwork, "The Hidden Life of Okra " will be available for bidding.