Tag Archives: Okra

Okra, Squash, Scarecrow 2024-05-27

Update 2024-05-30: Blueberry Scacrecrow 2024-05-24.

Maybe the scarecrow will keep the critters off the okra and the yellow squash.

[Okra, squash, scarecrow]
Okra, squash, scarecrow

Also known as straightneck squash, the Abelmoschus esculentus is producing quite a bit.

The okra, Abelmoschus esculentus, hasn’t bloomed yet, but maybe it will soon.

Got a few more taters to dig, too, adding to the many we already dug.

-jsq

Okra Paradise Farms is disappointed in farmer Bill Gates 2021-06-08

Okra Paradise Farms doesn’t always get into national news, but when we do it’s about Bill Gates.

April Glaser, NBC News, 8 June 2021, updated 9 June 2021, McDonald’s french fries, carrots, onions: all of the foods that come from Bill Gates farmland: Gates does not appear to count his farming investments as the nation’s largest farmland owner as part of his broader strategy to save the climate.

The story goes into some detail about how a few big corporate farmland owners crowd out small farmers. She didn’t go for my comparison to Wal-Mart, and I suppose my comparison to the Highland Clearances was a bit too obscure, but she got the point and backed it up with documentation.

Then there’s this part:

“Shell of a shell of a shell”

Public records suggest Cascade Investments has bought its farmland through a web of at least 22 limited liability shell companies across the country. These shell companies have made it difficult to find out where and how much farmland the Gateses own even for local farmers, like John S. Quarterman, a farmer and landowner who grows okra, corn, squash and other vegetables in Lowndes County on the southern edge of Georgia.

[John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. Matt Odom / for NBC News]
John Quarterman on his farm in Lowndes County, Ga. Matt Odom / for NBC News

That’s where the Gateses began buying land in 2013 through two limited liability corporations registered to an address in Kirkland by Derek Yurosek, then head of agriculture operations for Cascade.

When Quarterman first heard about Gates’ firm buying land in the area, he began digging through local property records, linking addresses and business records from registered owners to Kirkland-based companies, until he was able to piece together that the companies buying multiple tracts of land in the Suwannee River Basin were all a “shell of a shell of a shell company investing for Bill Gates.” NBC News’ independently confirmed that there were, in fact, shell companies tracing back to Gates’ firm that purchased 6,021 acres across four counties in Georgia.

That includes Continue reading

Okra, Tomatoes 2020-07-15

Two colors of okra.

[Okra, green and red]
Okra, green and red

More every day, here at Okra Paradise Farms, halfway between Atlanta and Orlando and all the way to paradise.
http://www.okraparadisefarms.com/

And some tomatoes, but those are all picked out now. I blanched and froze some, and ate the rest. Continue reading

Garden mowed 2020-06-21

You can almost see it’s a garden, after weeks of weeding and Gretchen had just finished mowing between the rows.

[After weeks of weeding and mowing]
After weeks of weeding and mowing

Visible, left to right: cucumber, yellow squash, okra, eggplant, tomato, corn (maize).

-jsq

Johnsons with okra, corn, and pitcher plants 2019-06-24

Tom H. Johnson Jr. and Mary Caroline Pindar wanted to see the garden at Okra Paradise Farms.

That one, Okra

Abelmoschus esculentus, okra, lady’s fingers, gumbo, ngombo, bhindi, vendakkai, and many other names. Possibly from West Africa, or Ethiopia, or South Asia. Requires full sun and hot temperatures with good soil. Continue reading