Grow your own

 

Okras grown in our garden

This summer is our first summer, vegetable-gardening. Well, we actually began in spring. The initial investment was in soil, seeds, seedlings, and pots to start seeds. Doing something for the first time has elements of excitement as well as doubt - you do not know if you will become successful. There are so many factors that are at play - seed quality, soil quality, rainfall, temperature, light intensity, et cetera! 

Here in this post, you are seeing a photo of freshly picked okras. When our okra plants first bore flowers, we were over the moon but only to discover that the flowers withered and fell to the ground. I do not remember exactly when I saw that the flowers were turning into vegetables, but you can guess that it was the day when my husband and I began to believe in ourselves and that our hard work would to pay off. If you did not know, okra is a self-pollinating plant. 

We have four okra plants in our backyard now - tall and healthy with bristly stems. 

In the picture below, you are seeing a bunch of calabash or bottle gourd leaves and stems. In Bengali cuisine, these leaves and stems are cooked and relished with rice. The simplest recipe does not even need more than five simple ingredients - oil, chopped onion, turmeric powder, salt and and lime juice! 

There is so much joy in growing your own food. Moreover, the food that you grow always tastes better than the food sold at stores. Happy gardening!