Fresh Veggies

[Isaac-Saxxon]

Originally Posted by rhertz

LOL, just don't eat so many okra that your socks slide down!

You pick that okra and you will get the itchy bug itch and you better wash those hands twice.

Etymology, origin and distribution
The name okra is of West African origin and is cognate with "ókùrù" in Igbo, a language spoken in what is now known as Nigeria. The species is occasionally referred to by an early, now incorrect synonym, Hibiscus esculentus L.


Okra flower bud and immature seed podThe species apparently originated in the Ethiopian Highlands, though the manner of distribution from there is undocumented. The Egyptians and Moors of the 12th and 13th centuries used the Arab word for the plant, suggesting that it had come from the east. The plant may thus have been taken across the Red Sea or the Bab-el-Mandeb strait to the Arabian Peninsula, rather than north across the Sahara. One of the earliest accounts is by a Spanish Moor who visited Egypt in 1216, who described the plant under cultivation by the locals who ate the tender, young pods with meal.