My OKRA Garden!

Inspired by the climax dialogue of Mohanlal in the Malayalam movie, Ividam Swargamanu, we decided to go ahead with gardening vegetables rather than flowers or spices.

Well, it was hard to decide what needs to be in the garden as we get 6-8 months of gardening time. Rounds of discussions, finally, we decided to go ahead with "OKRA" which is the vegetable always "on-demand" in our family and of course, on demand in the market too!

OKRA, known as Lady's finger in english speaking countries, Bhindi in Indian subcontinent, originated from Africa and cultivated mainly tropical and sub-tropical region.

The picture on the right is an OKRA from my garden.

Actually, the geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of South Asian, Ethiopian and West African origins. Supporters of a South Asian origin point to the presence of its proposed parents in that region. Opposed to this is the lack of a word okra in the ancient languages of India suggests that it arrived there in the Common Era (AD). Supporters of a West African origin point to the greater diversity of okra in that region; however confusion betweeen okra and West African okra casts doubt on those analyses.

The Egyptians and Moors of the 12th and 13th centuries used the Arabic word for the plant, suggesting that it had come from the east. The plant may entered have south west Asia across the Red Sea or Bab-el-Mandeb strait to the Arabian Peninsula, rather than north across the Sahara, or from India. One of the earliest accounts is by a Spanish Moor who visited Egypt in 1216, who described the plant under cultivation by the locals who ate the tender, young pods with meal.

From Arabia, the plant spread around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and eastward. The plant was introduced to the Americas by ships plying the Atlantic slave trade by 1658, when its presence was recorded in Brazil. It was further documented in Suriname in 1686.

Okra may have been introduced to southeastern North America in the early 18th century. It was being grown as far north as Philadelphia by 1748. Thomas Jefferson noted that it was well established in Virginia by 1781. It was commonplace throughout the southern United States by 1800 and the first mention of different cultivars was in 1806.

Okra is cooked and also eaten raw in many countries into many different dishes, right from soups with fish, thick stew with vegetables and meat, breaded deep fried to soya sauce, chicken with okra.

During my childhood days, elders used to mention that okra contains radio calcium which helps in brain growth and development and often reminded me that when my marksheets, progress reports come from school. The same story, I too tell my child! :-)

The truth is Okra possess diuretic properties, which means, it pushes water out of our body and used to treat heart failure, hypertension, kidney disease and liver cirrhosis.

The picture on the right is my OKRA garden!

Amish Acres - Arts & Crafts Festival 8-Aug-2010

Amish Acres is a tourist attraction in Nappanee, Indiana. Arts and Crafts Festival was held between 5-Aug-2010 to 8-Aug-2010.

The Arts and Crafts Festival has evolved from a clothes line art exhibit begun in 1962 in front of the Pletcher Furniture Village in downtown Nappanee. Held during sidewalk days, the exhibit displayed the water colors created by the arts and crafts program from the parks and department. Joseph Wrobble, well known teaching artist from South Bend, Indiana and Dory Crane a Nappanee promoter were instrumental in the early years of the event.
Over the next several years vendors were allowed to sell their arts and crafts from booths along the city streets and alleys. Professional judges were employed to choose winning art work from entries. Food offerings were expanded. Entertainment was added. Visitors began asking for Amish related products and services. Baked goods, meats, jams and jellies were added. Horse and buggy rides plus countryside tours were added to the festival. By 1968 the festival had taken on enough Amish flavors that became in essence the feasibility study for the creation of Amish Acres. In 1969 during restoration of the farm the festival remained downtown. Visitors were shuttled to the farm for preview tours. An Amish church held a homemade ice cream social in the bank barn. A year later the festival was moved to the courtyard of the farm which included the original relocated barn that became Amish Acres first restaurant. As the festival grew and the number of booths expanded into the farm’s orchard, the decision was made to move the marketplace to surround the pond.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Well, I was thinking of a "hot" topic for you readers, nothing came up to the mind, until I got this "hot" Idea!

I've been traveling across India, Europe, Americas and my friends, colleagues often mention a liking about spicy food. Many mean the word "spicy" as "hot", which of-course is not fully right.

"Hot" food is liked by many but when it extreme hot, one suffers quite badly. While many european friends mentioned that is the healthy food.

Interestingly, the unit of measurement for the "spicy heat" is called as Scoville scale.
The scoville rating ranges from 100 to 1,075,000 for Bell pepper to Bhut Jolokia.

Bell pepper is the "capsicum" which is used for salads, sometimes fried rice etc and normally felt sweet or little hot. I did not get a chance for tasting the Bhut Joloki. Bhut Jolokia was certified in 2007 by Guiness Book of World Records as the "Hottest" chilli pepper in the world. This is atleast 3 times hotter than our Guntur chilli.

After tasting the Guntur chilli from Andhra, India, I got a chance the explore Mexican Jalapeño, Serrano. I was fascinated with Serrano by flavor until I had chance to taste "Habanero".

Habanero belongs to the same class as Guntur chilli but is more fruity juicy pepper, which adds taste and flavor, particularly with fish curry made with coconut juice!

The below picture is a sample of Habanero from my garden in Mishawaka!