Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Okra And Despair (Didn't Flannery O'Connor Write A Story With That Title? She Should Have)


I pickled a lot of damn okra today. Eighteen pints, five half pints and two quarts to be exact. I used every jar and lid in the house I had and made huge batches of brine twice.
One of my pints is in the refrigerator because I touched the lid and it popped down and I never trust that sort of seal. I am keeping my hands off the rest of them. And oh, one half pint jar broke its bottom out as soon as I put it in the canner of boiling water.
These things happen.

For some reason I do not feel my regular sense of satisfaction at all of these pickles. Maybe it's because I didn't grow the okra myself. I don't know.

I just wrote a political paragraph or two and then deleted them. What good does any of it do? Talk, talk, talk.

I don't really have much to say tonight. I made a lot of pickled okra. I hope it's good.

I wish it would rain.


15 comments:

  1. It does seem futile sometimes, doesn't it? But you made okra pickles and that has to be a good thing.

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  2. I am proud of your pickling. I think I might like pickled okra. I very much want to hear your political thoughts.

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  3. Today has been one of the tough ones for me. I've had a few that stand out in their shittiness since the horrible election. And today things seem to have maxed out, topped off by disgusting people drooling over 45's lies and hate in AZ last night.

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  4. Today I made French onion soup in my InstantPot and I also made a Thai cucumber salad because we have 80 million cucumbers in our garden. Maybe a little less.

    I want to learn to can but I am afraid of doing it wrong and killing everybody.

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    1. You have given me something to think about. It would be the perfect crime.

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  5. Flannery O'Connor and okra and you are three of my favorite things in the South.

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  6. you will not believe that I have never tasted Okra! I have no idea what the fuss is all about. My mother told me it was slimy - I believed her because she never told a fib.

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  7. I wish that I could have a jar of pickled okra.

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  8. Pickled Okra sounds delish. I did write a Political Paragraph or two, since we had riots in our streets here in Phoenix with 45's visit... disturbing times, it has me very unsettled... moreso that there still seems to be rabid supporters of this shitshow and for the life of me I can't comprehend that...

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  9. I do like it but will you really eat all that pickled okra?

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  10. I have that same impulse when I write about politics. Your pickles may not have given you as much satisfaction, but to a non-pickler like me, they're pretty impressive!

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  11. I find i often write political paragraphs and delete them, too. hard to ignore what is happening, but immersion is not all that healthy either. it's hard to find the balance. that is a lot of pickled okra, a vegetable i can confirm to be rather slimy. no one ever made me non slimy okra and i have never in my life bought any for myself, though i would be willing to try your pickled ones.

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  12. Your version of 'Love in the Time of Okra' would be far more interesting than the Spanish to English version of the original novel. My sister likes to throw a heap of okra in the rice cooker for a bit, then sit down to a big, mucilaginous bowl of goobery green (goodness?). I appreciate the magicians who can brine the snot out of them and render them crunchy and delicious. (Even if they did not, in fact, grow it themselves!)

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.