#bearbottomfarm

That giant Molokhia I posted yesterday grew from seeds I planted in March, and now at their massive bases they have formed seed pods ripe with the next generation of blue-green angular seeds. In past years the plants have stayed shorter than me and their seed pods have not ripened before frost. The hoop house experiment was a success! My friend Mason from Bear Bottom Farm in Dillwyn, Virginia will be offering Molokhia seeds he grew (originally from his Syrian grandfather) in the Seed Keeping catalog this Fall! #molokhia #mulukhiyah #jute #juterug #egyptianspinach #okraleaf #jewsmallow #seedkeeping #bearbottomfarm (at Dillwyn, Virginia)

My friends Mason and Wiley from Bear Bottom Farm in Dillwyn, Virginia grew White Velvet Okra from seeds we shared with them. They sent back this fresh seed with a note from Mason: "They did great and tasted wonderful. I got a 3rd place ribbon for them at the Abermarle County Fair behind two entries of Clemson Spineless, the most generic okra. Wiley cleaned up in the oddball veggies category". Here's a post from last year: White Velvet Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) has been an important part of Southern foodways (particularly in Alabama, but also parts of Mississippi and Louisiana) for over 100 years (according to @slowfoodusa - see their terrific history of this variety). It was made commercially available in 1890 and was widely popular due to its tender fruit lacking spines, and beautiful contrast to the colors of tomato based soups, or sometimes in fresh salads, pickles, gumbos, or by itself. Like many important regional food plant varieties, the scaling up of globalized agriculture brought a flooding of the market of cheaper, more standard and generic green okra varieties being grown farther away, and so this velvety white okra is somewhat rare these days. #whitevelvetokra #abelmoschusesculentus #southernfoodways #alabamafood #okra #whiteokra #bearbottomfarm #seedsharing #seedkeeping #seedsaving (at South West Philadelphia)