TWENTY-ONE VEGETABLES - Start a Community Food Garden - page 128

Store and Serve Kale will keep for about a week, washed and wrapped in a damp paper towel and stored
in the refrigerator in an open plastic bag. To freeze, wash and remove stems. Blanch in boiling water for
2 minutes. Rinse in cold water to stop cooking and store in freezer bags.
Remove stems by folding leaf in half and running a knife down the stem. Young, small leaves can
be left intact and sliced into salads or thrown into a smoothie. Kale retains most of its volume when
cooked, unlike spinach, and a pound yields 2 cups cooked. Sauté it, steam it, put it into soup, combine
cooked kale with pasta, or make kale chips by tossing the leaves with oil and salt, then drying them out
in the oven at the lowest setting.
OKRA
Abelmoschus esculentus
Okra is a traditional Southern vegetable that is also found in cuisines around the world. In the same
plant family as hibiscus, the okra flower strongly resembles its cousin. Heirloom varieties can grow
quite tall, with beautiful stems and colorful pods.
Start If planting okra from seeds, soak for 12 hours to soften the hard seed coat, and sow ½ inch deep.
Early summer, once the soil is warm, is the best time to plant seeds or seedlings. Young plants can be
grown in peat pots and planted directly in the soil so the roots are not disturbed.
Grow Okra can grow quite tall, up to 6 feet, and needs full sun, so plant where its shade will not block
other plants. Water regularly during hot, dry spells. Remove pods that have grown too big.
Harvest Okra matures quickly and will be ready for harvest about 4 days after the plant flowers. Use
scissors to cut the pods off when they are soft and no larger than 2 to 3 inches. Any bigger and the pod
will be woody and inedible. Harvest every other day for continual production.
Store and Serve Do not wash okra. It does not store well—a few days at most in a perforated bag. Okra
is best used fresh from the garden, or frozen or pickled at the height of freshness. To freeze, trim stems,
blanch for 3 minutes in boiling water, and spread out on a tray. Once frozen, store in container.
Okra has a gummy substance that works as a thickener, but some find it slimy. Sauté, roast, and grill
okra to eliminate slime, or dip in corn meal and deep fry. You can also wash just before use, pat dry, and
cook with onions and tomatoes for a Southern favorite called gumbo.
ONIONS
Allium cepa
Onions come in a variety of shapes, colors, and flavors. They are easy to grow when varieties adapted
to your specific climate are planted. A popular vegetable in cuisines throughout the world, onions store
well and are thought to have many healthful properties.
Start It is best to grow onions from transplants or sets, as the seeds take a long time to germinate. Sets
are small, dormant onions, and do better in cooler climates, while transplants are more successful in
southern climates.