Okra is OK

"So where are we headed?" I asked Jason Brashears as we hiked to the far end of a field that looked as if it were planted in nothing more promising than plowed dirt.

"We are going to Okraville," he said with a grin and a tip of his wide-brimmed, straw hat.

A little further along, after crunching our way through dirt clods the size of bricks, I could see Okraville: two ankle-high rows of 700 plants, some with bright red stems, tottering in a breeze near Hidden Springs like an army of lost infants. On this far corner of another farmer's field, Brashears planted three varieties of okra and thus launched a start-up he calls Jason's Fine Okra . A business based on one obscure vegetable may sound a tad peculiar, but Brashears and his crop represent a growing trend in Idaho agriculture.

The number of new farmers entering small-scale farming is on the rise, in part due to a host of avenues opening to first-time farmers allowing them to plant, process and sell their crops without the massive, up-front financial costs required of conventional agriculture. With less to lose, they have the freedom to experiment with products as odd and unlikely as okra.

"But why okra?" I asked

"Well, my family and I are from the Texas panhandle," Brashears explained in a faint, breezy drawl. "And down there, it's just all over. My grandma started growing it and so I guess I'm just kind of taking over a family tradition."

A family tradition in the South, perhaps. But for many, okra is an unfamiliar and unloved vegetable noted for the goo it exudes. A member of the mallow family, okra originated in what is now Ethiopia and has long been prized in the cuisines of Africa, the Middle East and India. The late New Orleans food writer and fifth-generation Creole Leon E. Soniat Jr. wrote that his grandmother, "Memere," often said the plant was introduced to America by slaves who "smuggled some of the okra seeds in their thick, bushy hair." Louisiana Indians soon embraced the bullet-shaped vegetable's goo factor, too, using it to thicken a stew they called gumbo, a variation on "ochinggombo," one of many African names for okra.

Brashears simply thinks okra tastes like home.

"Ever since we were old enough to eat solid foods, [okra has] been on our plates," he said as he knelt down to check on one of the three varieties of okra he'd planted.

A journeyman plumber who got tired of having to travel further from the Treasure Valley for work, Brashears took a job last year as a field manager at Peaceful Belly Farm near Hidden Springs. One day, at lunch, he suggested his okra idea to owners Clay and Josie Erskine.

Pickled Okra | Tasty Kitchen: A Happy Recipe Community!

Preparation Instructions

Prepare jars, rings and lids according to standard canning procedure.

Into the sterile jars, pack as many pods of okra as possible with the tips pointing up. To each jar add 1 whole garlic clove, 1 teaspoon of canning salt, 1 teaspoon of dill seed and 1/4 teaspoon of whole peppercorns. Finish packing the jars as much as possible with additional okra, tips down, fitting the pods in tightly but take care not to crush the okra.

Bring the vinegar and water to a boil. Then pour the boiling mixture into your jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the rim.

Place lids and rings on jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Remove jars from the canner and allow them to cool completely. Let the pickles sit for about a month to achieve the best flavor.

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