Okra Pickles
The first upload of this video, I messed up, but didn't catch it until a few hours later. This is the good version. Sorry for the blunder...
What can I say? I hate okra. It's slimy, and the flavor is simply not my favorite. Unfortunately, it grows really well in the summer heat, and so it ends up going into the garden. The food pantries take it, it can garner a few cents at the farmers market, and of course I have friends that will take it, and I'm happy to give it all away, that is, of course, after I make my personal batch of okra pickles. Nothing beats okra pickles; the hollow pockets inside the pods fill with delectable brine and the little immature seeds act almost like capers. My wife isn't a fan, nor is my son, but my daughter – the one who would drown in kombucha – will eat them right along with me.
Before I get into the actual pickling process, a word or two about these seeds. I like to save my seeds, or acquire them from local sources. If a seed has been selected from a plant that has produced well and survived in my local climate, it is much more likely to do the same when it grows again in the same climate, than a seed that was saved from a plant in a very different climate. As I was new to the area, I asked around among some local farmers and found some okra seed that a guy from church had been growing for a number of years. He gave me some, and I was off. They're a very long pod but remain tender up to eight inches, sometimes more.
Okra is also exceptionally easy from which to save seed. There's no fleshy vegetation on the seeds so they don't need any washing, and the pods ripen right on the plant, just make sure you pick them when they start to crack. I'm pretty diligent about not letting seed spill out into the garden, but I still have trouble with volunteers popping up all over the garden in the spring. If you do plan on saving seed, only grow one variety (unless you plan on caging or hand pollinating), but don't worry about cotton or hibiscus (the flowers look very similar). The three are in the same family, but that's as far as it goes.
As far as pickling goes, I use pods that will fit in pint jars after lopping off the stem. Quart jars will work, but that's a lot of okra pickles and we don't need to take up that much fridge space all at once. For four pints I'll use 2.5 cups of apple cider vinegar and an equal amount of water, with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 3 tablespoons of salt. While that's boiling, I'll throw my spices in the jars. As you can see from the video, I like to use an eclectic variety and no two jars are the same. Then I pressure cook them for 10 minutes.
Give it a try sometime. They're delicious and if you're growing okra, you know you have extras to expeiriment with. Also, if you want some seeds, let me know.
My video is at DLive
I am not a huge fan of okra myself, but I do LOVE pretty much anything pickled!
I actually was considering making my first ever batch of dilly beans this year. I don't have okra growing here but it's good to know you can preserve it for later use.
I love dilly beans! They're another veggie that I have to can just for me and my daughter. We freeze a ton, but only after I make my dilly beans for the year. Haha!
Fixed , Counter the vote.