The Okra Monster has arrived! That’s ME this time of year when the okra is coming in like gangbusters and I hungrily gulp large servings of the toothsome delicacy. Nothing tastes better than vine ripened tomatoes and fried okra & onions, and often that’s all I have on my plate! I love okra, but I hate to pick it! If harvesting the daily supply of okra from the back garden has ever been the straw YOU’VE drawn, then you know exactly what I mean!
The venture begins with a joyful wondering at the ample daily production of slender green pods and with adoring the buttery colored blossoms and the broad and shady, palm-shaped leaves, only to end with a highly anxious run back to the house while clutching a hand that quickly has become aflame with horrific itching and burning sensations. Other parts of the body commence to seethe, as well, and you imagine you’ve either waded through a dense thicket of poison ivy or that YOU’RE now the one being attacked by the okra monster!
The culprit isn’t a monster, however, but a proteolytic (protein breaking) enzyme in okra that causes contact dermatitis and skin lesions. The best defense is to wear rubber gloves while picking the okra, or even an old sock will do - especially on the hand that holds the pods while cutting them from the stems - and then wash your hands thoroughly when the chore is complete. If you’ve already got a bad case of contact dermatitis from your daily okra forays, rubbing jewelweed soap onto the moistened skin and allowing it to dry works well at dousing the flames. If you don’t have jewelweed soap, try using any fragrance-free bar soap that you have on hand.
Happy okra picking - and EATING!!!
...chomp...chomp...chomp...
If you ever need an okra picker, I'm the one. Just two problems, I'll have to eat some of the harvest and I live too far to do it every other day as needed once it starts to come on. I love okra too and the sticky, itchy does not bother me. Please don't tell that to my Grandmother who was told, "the garden makes me itch" when I was young and much lazier. Sometime try sliced green tomatoes,sliced okra, and (optional) sliced banana peppers seasoned with salt and pepper, mixed with a coating of cornmeal and fried together until tender. Looks awful....tastes sooooo good!
ReplyDeleteYou'll have to cook some of that up for me some time and let me sample it, Betty. My okra is finished for this season, though - so shy it is of the slightest cooling of the air!
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