Okra (Ladies Fingers) & Belimbing : From garden to table

Okra plant is very easy to grow. I have grown them a number of times before. The okra can be harvested in less than 3 months from date of sowing. I sowed six okra seeds on 13th March, and now I have six plants growing in my potted garden, all the seeds germinated and now are producing okras daily. I harvested the first okra about a week ago, and have been harvesting about 2 okra everyday. 

The flower is really lovely, hard to imagine that okras are from these flowers! 

 The growing okra, see the drying petal of the flower still on the tip.

Lovely healthy okra, homegrown with no pesticide whatsoever. The plants are really hardy and so far I have no problem of any bugs or plant pests.

Harvested 5 okras from this plant alone! Note : Okras are best harvested at 3-4 days. Yup, 3-4 days old. Once the flowers start to produce the okra, they grow really quick, in a matter of a few days! So it is advisable to harvest them when they are 3 to 4 days old. This is the time when they are at their best, tender and delicious. They turned hard and old really quickly, and this could happen overnight!

 More okras, this will be perfect to be harvested in two days time.

 My okra harvest.

I have been harvesting about 2 okras daily and I kept them in a zip lock bag, store them in the fridge for about a week, until I have enough to make a dish.

 Harvested some belimbings too! 

What's for dinner tonight?

Sambal Belimbing Chicken and Stir-Fry Okra with Dried Prawns. 

The okras are young and tender, and tasted delicious!

Happy Gardening !

Radish and Some Harvest

I do not have much success with radish except for this. I almost threw away the seedling initially as it was not growing at all for many months. I then replanted it again in the same container but move it to a different spot and it suddenly started to grow real quick! Guess it wasn't happy with its previous spot! 

Harvested it today and that spot is taken by another radish seedling.  :)  Hopefully the new seedling will grow as well as this one!

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Garlic

My garlic greens! After my initial success with growing garlic greens a couple of months ago, I tried it again, and I'm happy that these are growing well too. My main purpose is for the greens, not the garlic. But when I pulled out a plant a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see a rounded garlic bulb already forming. So I planted it right back and thought it would be interesting to let it grow, just for the garlic. I do not have any experience in growing garlic and when is the right time to harvest. Diana is kind enough to advice me that it would take about 6-8 months to harvest, and when the leaves are turning yellow, it is a sign that it is ready to be harvested. Thank you, Diana, much appreciated. Am waiting very patiently now! (err... actually, very impatiently!)  : o)

Spotted a dill seedling in the pot of garlic.

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Harvest, same old veggies!

 Malabar spinach, these grow really fast!

More Belimbing fruits! Cook these in Asam Pedas Ikan Pari with Daun Kesum, heavenly delicious! Gave some belimbing fruits away to the makcik selling nasi lemak.  She was so happy! 

Ladies fingers! The last batch. I left the rest to dry on the plant to collect the seeds. Sowed some new seeds today. Looking forward to see them sprout!

Happy Gardening!

Okra

Okra plants in pots, both red and green, at my front garden. Planted these plants almost two months ago.

Harvested the okras. I steamed these with a dash of salt. Really sweet!

Happy Gardening!

Long Beans Debut!

My Long Beans Plant finally decided to flower!

Found about half a dozen flowers a few days ago!

They bloomed very prettily and most of them dropped off, where are the beans?

Only found one so far! 

Pot of kangkung

Ladies Fingers (Okra)

My harvest :  Kangkung, Spring Onions, Chives and Ladies Fingers

I have harvested a total of 2.2kg of spring onions from a packet of sprouted onions bought for only less than RM1.00! Wow! Definitely my favourite veggie, my house's favourite!

Happy Gardening !

French Beans, Ladies Fingers and Belimbing Fruit

My french beans are flowering and there's two tiny beans growing!

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Harvesting The Ladies Fingers ! I just love these plants, they are really easy to grow and are fast producing too!

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My ever favourite, belimbing tree! More fruits, my sis came to stay for a week and took back with her a bag of belimbing fruits, there's more on the tree!

Happy Gardening !

Some New Plants

Some new plants in pots:

 Baby carrots. Boy are these slow! These are more than one month old! 

Capsicum! Knowing my experience with chillies, will this be the same?

Radish! I have three of this. Planning to add more, three is not enough for my family!

The ever popular, easy growing spring onions. The one right in front with the bigger shoots is grown from big onions. The one behind it is grown from shallots. Shallots will give a more fragrant but narrower shoots. I usually use this for garnishing. For the big onions, I plant the smaller sized ones, these will give larger, broader shoots which I usually use for stir-fries.   Do you call these leaves or shoots or stems?  Can anyone clarify on this?  Whatever it is called, this is a must have with my kids when they have their chicken porridge. 

Chives! I have a battle with chives. They just refused to grow for me and I have been trying again and again. I think this is the third packet of seeds that finally have grown to this height. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will continue to grow. It is actually growing ever so slowly! I think that it is testing my patience! I have never seen chives sold in the market with the roots still intact, unlike the corianders.  Otherwise they can be grown direct from the market!

Faithful ladies fingers!  This is easy to grow and easy to fruit too!  I have four of this!

Nai pak. Only these and a few more.  The snails has a party with the rest of the seedlings! 

Update on the sawtooth coriander.  The number of flowers are more than a dozen from one single stem! And they are more sturdy and spikey that the leaves.

Happy Gardening

Ladies Fingers

The flowers of the ladies fingers is really pretty. I love to look at the delicate yellow petals contrasting againt the dark maroon centre. Looking at it, you won't know that it belongs to a vegetable.

One pretty flower five days ago.

The pretty flower turned into a pretty ladies fingers. This picture was taken 3 days ago. Another flower is blooming on the other side. Two more buds are growing!

Couldn't resist taking another shot!

This was taken this morning. The first ladies fingers can be harvested very soon! The second one will be about 3 days after that! Couldn't wait!

I'm going to harvest the first ladies finger maybe tomorrow, where it will be at its best, young, tender and juicy. But what am I to do with only one??? Maybe I'll keep it when I harvest the second one few days later. But then, it's only two. Doesn't matter, will cook it anyway and serve it as homegrown vege ! Wow, fantastic isn't it ??? My second plant is flowering now. I'm going to have more ladies fingers coming soon! Couldn't wait!