This year’s crop of fall-grown broccoli is looking very, very good! Yes, I’m welcoming in the month of December by harvesting an impressive crop of large heads of nutritious broccoli from the fall vegetable garden. This autumn season was ideal for growing terrific broccoli.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent scare involving bagged spinach that was contaminated with the E. coli bacteria. Many people became seriously ill, health alerts were issued, and fresh spinach completely disappeared from grocery stores, restaurant menus, and salad bars across the United States. While it’s unfortunate that the outbreak occurred and has been linked to an organic produce supplier, a part of the story that goes unnoticed is how an isolated contamination quickly mushroomed to the point of impacting the supply of spinach throughout the entire country.

The previous entry discussed growing okra in the home garden, today’s post takes a look at a few great okra varieties for the home gardener, along with ideas for preparing and cooking these delicious home grown pods.

Okra is one of those interesting vegetables like Cowpeas that for some reason you seldom discover growing in backyard vegetable gardens. Also like those Black Eyed Peas, okra is more popular as a Southern specialty crop; however it will grow perfectly well even in Northern gardens. If you can raise tomatoes and peppers in your garden you should have no trouble growing a healthy and productive crop of okra.

I also tend to be spontaneous when planning the vegetable garden but I do think that it is important to record the garden’s design and layout, even if it’s after the fact, so that you have a record that you can refer back to when planning your future gardens. Or you can take photos of your garden as a record of what was planted when, where, and the results.

Celery is a vegetable plant that is often excluded from the home garden because of its reputation for being demanding and difficult to grow. But in exchange for the effort home grown celery will reward you with flavor and nutritional value that surpasses that of the commercial varieties found at your local grocers.