Of Texas foods and non-Texans

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by lonestar2007

.....something good, fresh shelled pinto beans. If you've never had them, you should try to get some. They cook up so red and pretty and have a little different taste from the dried ones. I used to can them and a prettier jar of beans you'll never find and talk about good eating on winter days!

I have never had fresh pinto or black, but I bet they are out of this world delicious. You can get the seeds to grow them. Are they grown like snap peas, on a fence, or pole beans? I might try some in the garden next year, maybe!!

I have never seen them for sale raw fresh.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by tstone

They still pass out peanuts to this day. A bit surprising considering the fatal allergies some people have to the dust!

Well, since everyone knows that Southwest hands out peanuts, perhaps people with allergies simply take responsibility for themselves and don't fly Southwest? (Not that I'm unsympathetic to allergies, given that I carry an Epipen with me everywhere in case I confront an angry wasp.)

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Sorry Cathy! I went back and re-read my earlier post and yes, it DID appear I implied okra had "snaps". Forgive me for the confusion! Okra has TIPS (which I cook too), but not snaps! LOL

Anyway, yeah, you oughta try growing it. I know you live in New Mexico now and it MIGHT do well there, depending on the your climate. One of the reasons okra caught on so well in the Southern United States and not the north is precisely for that reason. It is one of those rare plants that truly THRIVES in hot weather. It just wont grow well (if at all) in the North or Mountain West as tempertures are not condusive for it. However, depending on where you live in New Mexico, if not in the higher elevations, you might get a decent crop!

Two things though, if you have never dealt with it before. First, once it starts growing, it grows FAST! LOL Also, it is very "sticky and itchy" to pick...kinda like handling fiberglass insulation!

*grinning a bit* Cathy hon, if there exists a good brand of frozen okra (battered or not), you will have to introduce me to it! Because my own experiences have just not been good! LOL

Well, relatively speaking, fresh is always better, but in the dead of winter, when you want a mess of okra gumbo, Birds' Eye, Green Giant and just about any BRAND name frozen sliced okra isn't bad....just stay away from the nasty store/oddball brands, which tend to be really inferior!! I use a decent brand of frozen, good-quality okra as well as decent canned diced tomatoes (Hunt's), too. It's always better in the summer with fresh garden produce, but hey, LOL!! As for breaded okra....that is nasty in any case, even fresh!!!

I have never seen okra growing, but have been given batches of fresh okra from other peoples' gardens, so I know about the itchy part, LOL!! There is no comparison in the flavor, which is true of any fresh produce! I cut off only a very small slice of the stem end, and I always look for young, tender pods. I don't know what it is about people and giant veggies, because the young tender ones are always better, with the exception of tomatoes!

I can grow just about anything here that I could in WT, because it gets hot as hell, even at 4500 feet! The biggest difference is the dryness and the cooler nights. Summers are shorter, but once it sets in, that's it. June was horrible (103 a couple of times), July not so swell....and it is now finally beginning to cool off and rain more.

I don't miss Midland at all as far as weather goes. They have been up to 113+ this year...yuuuuuuck.

I grew great Celebrities (tomatoes) this season, and they did outstandingly here--and I never had any luck with them in Midland at all!!!

So, maybe I'll throw in a plant or two of okra and pinto beans next season, if I have any room left over after I start my green chile!!!

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by awecelot

They taste a bit like pintos, and a bit like red beans. They don't really taste anything like black beans.

I had them while driving through South Carolina a few years back. All along the road were these stands advertising boiled peanuts. After the fourth or fifth one I saw, I just had to stop and get me some. I was hooked from the first taste.

They are a great snack food, and, according to Wikipedia, are an "excellent food for very hot weather and outdoor work."

Boiled peanuts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TexasReb - I've seen peanuts in Coke and have even done it once or twice. Those shelled peanuts are really good, too. And remember that Southwest Airlines, a home-grown Texas legend, has made the airline peanut famous.

With Texas' history with the peanut, it's surprising to me that the boiled peanut has never caught on.

We had peanuts in those little green bottles of coke when I was a kid!!

Interesting article!! Goober peas? I had heard of them, but I didn't realize that they were none other than peanuts!!

[destin04]

Not to get off subject...but I thought "Peanut Fares" were a product of Texas International Airlines(Trans Texas Airlines before that). I worked for Braniff back then and we use to laugh about all the people who would show up dressed up as peanuts...I could be confused ...I did just turn 50 last week.

[lonestar2007]

Originally Posted by Cathy4017

I have never had fresh pinto or black, but I bet they are out of this world delicious. You can get the seeds to grow them. Are they grown like snap peas, on a fence, or pole beans? I might try some in the garden next year, maybe!!

I have never seen them for sale raw fresh.

I've bought seeds at the feed store in the springtime along with all the other seeds for the garden and I've also just use the ones out of the bag at the grocery store, both pinto beans and peas. They grow in a bush. You can use the young ones for green beans, just snap them. Then if you want to shell them, just let them mature more, the pods will turn a yellow color with red streaks running along the pod. These will contain large, plump red (or pinto) beans. After the garden draws to a close, you can leave the remaining bean pods on until they dry out, then shell them and they will look just like what you buy in the bag at the store.

The black eyed peas and purple hull are the same, they just make a bigger bush, but they are so easy to pick, the peas grow on top of the plant rather than under it, so you don't have to stoop so much when picking them. These can be picked and the bigger ones shelled, the smaller ones snapped. I used to grow purple hull and black eyed peas in my fall garden. They did as well in the fall as in the spring, sometimes even better.

Okra will grow in the poorest soil and it doesn't require a lot of water, just hot weather. It depends on the type okra you plant as to the size of the stalk. They have a dwarf variety that is short. I used to plant the Louisana long green velvet variety. It grows tall. One year I planted a red okra. It had a ribbed pod, was indeed red, but turned green when cooked. It was unreal how big the okra pod could get and never get hard. It grew so tall, I would have to bend the stalk over to cut it. I know, this sounds like a tall tale, but every word is true, I swear. Reb is right, okra is very polific. I have thrown away so much okra over the years, just flat cut it off (it would get too hard) and throw it on the ground. You can only eat so much, freeze so much and give so much away. I went for years and didn't have okra because I didn't have a garden and I simply refused to pay $.99 a pound for it. I had thrown too much away over the years to do that.

I don't know if y'all have a farmer's market in your area, but I know over at the Dallas farmer's market, they used to sell both the fresh shelled pinto beans and several varities of fresh shelled peas. I don't know what they have over there now, it's been a lot of years since I've been over there.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by lonestar2007

...I don't know if y'all have a farmer's market in your area, but I know over at the Dallas farmer's market, they used to sell both the fresh shelled pinto beans and several varities of fresh shelled peas. I don't know what they have over there now, it's been a lot of years since I've been over there.

Yes, there are 2-3 farmers' markets in the area...it's just a matter of being too lazy to get up that early (opens at 7:30) and get over there before everything is sold out. Ours will only run around another 6 weeks or so, so I need to get over there at some point!

Your okra story sounds like the run-amok zucchini squash, LOL!!

I am used to sandy loam soil....and here, they have a heavy clay soil that dries to the consistency of a brick!!

So, I did all container gardening this year, in Earthbox-type containers, and they work well. I'm sure any garden plant that doesn't sprawl all over the place (melons, etc) can be grown in those!

[TexasHorseLady]

Cathy, we have the black gumbo clay soil here. What we've found is that you can clean out a chicken coop and break the sod, lift it up, put the chicken coop contents down, water it real well, lay the sod back down on top, and leave it for a few months. (Doing this in the fall works well.) Come spring, you'll have the most beautiful soil that you can work with your hands and that will grow anything two to three times normal size. If you don't have chickens, perhaps you can find someone who will let you haul off their chicken coop contents for them - it's pure gold to a gardener with clay soil!

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Cathy, we have the black gumbo clay soil here. What we've found is that you can clean out a chicken coop and break the sod, lift it up, put the chicken coop contents down, water it real well, lay the sod back down on top, and leave it for a few months. (Doing this in the fall works well.) Come spring, you'll have the most beautiful soil that you can work with your hands and that will grow anything two to three times normal size. If you don't have chickens, perhaps you can find someone who will let you haul off their chicken coop contents for them - it's pure gold to a gardener with clay soil!

Boy, I bet it is, LOL!!! I was shocked when I started transplanting things to the front yard....sticky, gooey...I had never had any experience with it at all.

Now I have to find me a chicken coop...dang!!! I guess cow manure and homemade compost would work well, too.

The containers actually work quite well, and enable me to have earlier tomatoes (nighttime temps are colder here in the spring and last longer), since I could wheel them to the garage or even the kitchen at night!

[awecelot]

I had to come back and find this thread because I found some boiled peanuts yesterday! It was at a little roadside stand between Houston and Lufkin (I think it was in the area between Cleveland and Livingston, but it may have been between Splendora and Cleveland as well). Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop and get them.