Okra Even Inspires Poetry

Okra is such a delectable vegetable, it has even inspired poetry and song. Chris Smithers' "I Got No Love" is sung by a peddler of vegetables who has "Okra, enough to choke ya, and beans of every kind." (Sound familiar?) And the Florida Okra Fest (slogan, "Celebrate the Pod) features "The Okra Song," which begins:


Okra it gets slimy
When you cut it with a knife
Love is just as slippery
You gotta hang on for dear life

I even came across a poem that mentions okra by a well-known Cincinnati poet, Nikki Giovanni. (She was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, but grew up in Lincoln Heights.)

Knoxville Tennessee

I always like summer
Best
you can eat fresh corn
From daddy's garden
And okra
And greens
And cabbage
And lots of
Barbeque
And buttermilk
And homemade ice-cream
At the church picnic
And listen to
Gospel music
Outside
At the church
Homecoming
And go to the mountains with
Your grandmother
And go barefooted
And be warm
All the time
Not only when you go to bed
And sleep

--Nikki Giovanni

Who Loves Okra?

Okra is like eggplant—either you love it, or you don't. I love okra. (I love eggplant, too, but for all you okra avoiders, I hated kale before I joined the CSA. Now I eat it all the time and I like it very much too. So, you could change your tune!)

Anyway, I've been eating okra all my life, and yes it's hairy, and slimy after you eat it, and apparently in other parts of the world it is called "lady fingers." All things that make it sound more like a prop in a horror movie than a tasty ingredient in stews, gumbos, and jambalaya. I like it that way, or just steamed with tomatoes as Smothered Okra.

It's also tasty fried, though I don't think it's particularly good for you that way, and I'm not a dab hand at deep frying, so I usually eat this when I'm at a BBQ joint. So, how do you like your okra? Do you like your okra at all? If you don't, just put it on the share table—the okra lovers among us will be happy to take it off your hands!