118 



OKRA AND SOUPS. 



OKRA, AND THE SCIENCE OF SOUPS. 



There are two vegetables which we have 

 borrowed from the West Indies and the 

 Tropics, that are really great acquisitions 

 to the domestic economy of all classes. We 

 mean the Tomato and the Okra. 



The Tomato, which, fifteen years ago, 

 was chiefly cultivated in the gardens of the 

 curious, and was scarcely considered edible 

 to a northern palate, has now become the 

 tenant of every garden, and is used in some 

 form, either raw, cooked, or preserved, in 

 salads, sauces, and stews, or even dried like 

 figs, by almost every man, woman and child 

 in thecommunity. It is, indeed, one of the 

 most valuable and wholesome of vegetables, 

 and the appetite for it which now universally 

 prevails, is but another proof of how much 

 stronger are acquired tastes than natural 

 -ones, since we think it may be safely said 

 that the first morsel of Tomato is not re- 

 lished by one person in a hundred. 



The Okra is another vegetable which, 

 though it has now been cultivated and high- 

 ly prized in all our more southern cities for 

 years, and is appreciated as it deserves by 

 those who have made its acquaintance at 

 the north, is still far from being a well 

 known or common A^egetable in northern 

 gardens. 



It is a West Indian plant, and is familiar- 

 ly known there and in New-Orleans, as 

 Gumbo. It is the Hibiscus esculentus of bo- 

 tanists, and belongs to the same family as 

 the Mallow, Althea, etc., a group of plants 

 remarkable for its absence of all deleterious 

 properties, and indeed for its wholesome 

 mucilaginous qualities. 



The culture of the Gumbo is perfectly 

 simple and easy in all parts of the Union 

 where Indian Corn and Lima Beans flou- 

 rish. About the middle of May, a piece 



of warm and rich soil should be prepared, 

 and the seeds sowed in drills two to three 

 feet apart. They may be sowed four or 

 five inches apart in the drills, and finally 

 thinned out to single plants at double that 

 distance. In good soils, the plants will grow 

 from three to five feet high, and produce 

 flowers and pods from midsummer till frost. 

 The flowers are not much unlike those of the 

 African Hibiscus, but they are twice as 

 large, and the whole plant is prettier than 

 many of the novelties allowed a place in 

 the flower garden. 

 The esculent part is 

 the pod, used when 

 about from two to 

 three inches long, fig. 

 18. Its most popular 

 use in the West In- 

 dies and at the South, 

 is as an ingredient in 

 soups, to which it not 

 only gives nice con- 

 sistency and agreea- 

 ble flavor,but renders 

 it more wholesome 

 and digestible. 

 When used in soups, 

 the pod is cut into 

 bits about a quarter 

 of an inch long, and 

 a handful of these is 

 sufiicient for soup for 

 a dozen persons. The 

 pods when tender, of 

 the size just mention- 

 ed, are also stewed 

 and served up with butter, and if preferred 

 a little nutmeg, which is a very agreeable 

 dish. 



The Okra or Gumbo is considered an ex- 



Thc Okra. 



