Pat called this morning and asked what kind of okra I planted every year--because hers didn't do anything last year and she wanted to plant what I planted--I always have good success with okra.  "Well," I told her, "I plant Poppy's (that's what she calls my dad) seeds.  He always had a great okra patch so I got some of his okra seeds years and years ago--probably 20 years ago.  I just harvest seed every year at the end of the year so I never run out."

"Do you have enough for me to have some?"  And of course I did.  (We need Poppy's okra seed coming up all over Oklahoma.)  I just pick some healthy pods every year, at the beginning of production, and let them grow.  Eventually, they turn brown and go to seed.  I always let more of them ripen than I need--so that I have plenty of seed to give away.  Then I put the brown pods in an open glass canister on my kitchen counter where I can see them all winter long and dream of spring.

I planted my okra last Monday.  Yes, I know, it's probably too early, but I never can wait.  They will pop up and just sit there until it gets hot.  And when the temperature is right, the plants grow like weeds.  The only thing okra needs--besides the sun--is water.  It's a hot weather plant.

God has blessed Oklahoma with the ability to grow our own food.  Just about everything you stick in the dirt will grow.  But I don't bother with green beans.  You can buy them frozen already snapped and you can't tell the difference if you cook them right.  I don't like to snap beans--probably because we had to do that when we went to my Gran's house in the summer.  She always planted Kentucky Wonders.  They tasted great, but the term "String-beans" came from Kentucky Wonders.  Stringy--and when you snapped them, you had to pull all the strings out or they ended up between your teeth.  Not fun.

I ate my own home grown tomatoes this January.  If you pick the green ones before the first frost and wrap them in newspaper, it will delay them from ripening.  I pulled a few out of the newspaper every week last year from October to January.  Yum.  Homegrown tomatoes in January.

Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  James 1:17