My World

There is a wonderful advantage to living in the deep south. Okra is a delicious food packed with vitamins and fiber that thrives in hot humid climates and we have plenty of that here. Local crops are coming in hot and heavy right now so it is available in abundance. We have a friend that grows, picks and sells his fresh tender crop. Today we bought ten pounds and I spent the afternoon preparing it for the freezer.

There isn’t really any prep other than rinse, part dry and slice after removing cap and bottom tip. Place in a freezer bag and into the freezer it goes. Some people place a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze for 4 hours, then place in a bag and some coat with cornmeal before freezing.

I prefer the simple method of slicing and bagging in 3 cup portions. This is great for use in gumbo, soups and stews. It is also ready to fry since we prefer a bit of cornmeal thrown into a skillet of frying okra rather than the battered version. Three cups fries down to the perfect amount for two people. If company arrives I simply pull out another bag or two to make enough for everyone.

If I can ever master dehydrating okra, it will become a mainstay in our diet. That is one of the most amazing snacks I have ever eaten but it is costly to purchase when actually found in a store. One tiny bag that is a small snack for one person is $6. I’m thinking we need a more high powered dehydrator than the small one we used years ago when we made deer jerky. I could use a good quality one for drying fruit too.

We had 9 bags when today’s batch of okra was processed. We will probably buy another 10 lb. portion before the harvest is over. I want to pickle a few jars as well as freeze a few more bags. That will be plenty to get us through to next summer.