Okra, or gumbo, as it is invariably called in the South, figures very largely in Creole cooking, but here in the East is only just appearing in the markets. The demand is sure to grow rapidly, because it is one of those insidious articles which seem indispensable when once used. Soups, stews, gravies and innumerable made dishes are all improved by a little okra, and it is the basis of many special dishes. My household is fond of gumbo soup, so for that alone okra had to have a place in the garden, and now we use it in a dozen different ways. Cut into slices and spread alternately with rice and tomatoes in a casserole, with butter, in which curry-powder and salt has been mixed, dotted all over the top and baked for three hours, it is a deliciously savoury luncheon dish.
But it is the growing, not the cooking, of this neglected vegetable that I have to do with just now. The ground for okra should be thoroughly enriched and 130 well cultivated. Make a furrow about an inch deep, and if only a home supply is wanted, about thirty feet long. Sow the seeds two inches apart in rows and cover. Thin to eighteen inches apart when the seedlings are about two inches high. If more than one row is to be grown, make them two and a half feet apart.
Okra is a semi-tropical plant, so is better not sown until the second week in May. Once started, it grows very rapidly, yields and continues a supply of pods throughout the season. The flowers are large and rather pretty, but only last a few hours; after they fall it takes about twelve hours for a pod to develop sufficiently for gathering. To be in perfect condition for cooking they should not be much more than an inch long. Any surplus quantity can be dried or canned for winter use. Sliced, they are a splendid addition to mixed pickles.
Swiss chard is such a true cut-and-come-again that for home or market it is invaluable, and a poultry-keeper can find no better or cheaper green food for fowls that are yarded. The leaves and stalks are the edible part, and can be boiled like spinach or the stalks alone used. They are white and run the full length of the leaf. Cut them out and tie loosely; cook and serve just as you would asparagus. The new variety called “Lucullus” is, I think, the best. Make the ground very rich; sow in rows three feet apart, about the end of April or the first week in May. Thin the plants when they are about two inches high to stand 131 eighteen inches apart. When used as spinach cut the leaves when they are ten inches high, but when the stalks are to simulate asparagus gathering should be delayed until they are about fourteen inches high. Then cut off the green part of the leaf, which can still be used as greens. No matter how the leaves are to be used or at what height the crop is cut, be very careful never to injure the heart of the plant, for if you do successive crops will be spoiled.
Brussels sprouts have been gaining favour in the market during the last few years and should certainly be in every garden, for they possess all the healthful qualities of cabbage, and the flavour is much more delicate.
When small, the plants look exactly like cabbage, but instead of firm, solid heads, the stalks run up to twelve or fourteen inches in height, and baby cabbages spring out all around the stalk for the entire length. One plant often yields thirty-five or forty of these diminutive cabbages.
One great advantage of Brussels sprouts is that the seed need not be sown until June and the plants are not ready for transplanting until July, so can succeed early peas in the same ground. Like all members of the cabbage family, Brussels sprouts are gluttons and positively must have heavy and rich ground. Sow seed in shallow drills; transplant when seedlings are about three inches high, two feet apart in rows three feet apart. For early spring harvest, sow seeds in hotbed during February or March. Mature plants are 132 quite hardy, but must be dug up before severe frost. The best way to keep the home supply is to hang the whole plant up by the roots in a frost-proof cellar.
Leeks and winter onions are members of the onion family which are usually overlooked, and it is a great pity, because they are both most desirable. Leeks should be sown on very fine, rich soil. A heavy dressing of poultry manure, applied the fall before planting, is an ideal fertiliser. Scatter the seed thick in rows two feet apart and thin out the plants so that they stand nine inches apart. Cultivate the ground constantly and hill up as the plants grow. This is a part of the work which must not be neglected, as it encourages the growth and bleaches the stalks. A slight frost won’t hurt them, but they must be heavily banked up and covered with litter if they are to stay out in the ground until spring.
The winter supply of these vegetables should be dug in December and stored in the house for convenience. Pack them, standing up as they grow, in boxes; scatter earth between them, and keep them in a dark cellar. For soups they are much superior to ordinary onions. Boiled and served with white sauce, they are a most enjoyable vegetable.
Winter bunch onions, as they are termed, are really the earliest of all spring onions. Sow the seed in shallow drills, a foot apart, in May or June. Cultivate until fall, then cover with litter. Early in the following spring rake off and cultivate lightly between 133 the rows, and you will have delicious green onions for table or market when other people are thinking about sowing the seed.
Kale should be considered indispensable in every garden, for it comes into season late in the fall, when frost has demolished all other greens. Even in the vicinity of New York it can be relied upon to furnish early spring greens almost before the snow is off the ground. In fact, I have gathered it from under deep snow in midwinter and found it in good condition. Seeds should be sown about the middle of June, and the seedlings transplanted into rows two feet and a half apart. The leaves are curly and of a dark green, and should not be used until there has been some frost, for until frozen they are as tough as they are tender after Jack Frost has visited them.
As soon as the weather becomes colder, bank straw or leaves on each side of the rows up to the top of the kale and then put cedar branches or brush of some sort along each side to keep the covering in place.
Kohlrabi is another valuable vegetable, which comes in when other things have faded. It really belongs to the cabbage family, but it is more like the turnip. The edible part is the bulb which develops above ground. When cooked it looks and tastes like a most delicately flavoured turnip. As they must be cooked while young and tender, it is best to make several sowings; one in the hotbed in February, and two others in the open ground; the first in May, the second in 134 August. They can stand quite a heavy frost and so are usable until December or January, according to the season.
Sow in rows placed about two feet apart, and after the young plants have attained sufficient strength to withstand attacks from beetles and such insects, thin them to two feet apart.
Perhaps it is as well to add a few hints about the general cultivation of these vegetables—hints which will be useful for all gardening. Cultivation must be constant and thorough, especially when the soil is light and sandy. Of course, no good gardener will permit weeds to get a foothold in his territory, but the constant use of the rake is much more important, for it keeps up the supply of moisture in the soil around the roots of the plants, and so insures their being well fed and making rapid growth.
This is a point which always seems to puzzle inexperienced gardeners, so it needs explanation. Stirring the surface soil with a fine rake as soon as it is partly dry after a rain, furnishes a mulch of dust which prevents the moisture in the lower earth escaping, because it checks the capillary process by which moisture travels to the surface and is carried into the air. The soil may be rich in the mineral and animal components which constitute plant-food, but unless moisture is present in sufficient quantities these are not available as sustenance for plants.