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blueandyellowmakes

Author • Speaker • Homesteader
Executive director of the utopianseedproject
The Whole Okra, 2020 James Beard Awardee

I always enjoy writing for @edibleasheville and I

I always enjoy writing for @edibleasheville and I greatly appreciate @ginakaesmith's thoughtful edits. In the latest edition I got to write about edible flowers, with input from @ashevillemicrogreens, @soulandsoilproject, and @thechefsfarmer.

I've been trying to start writing more regularly again. I definitely feel pulled to do it. My main challenge at the moment is working out what to write... When I was in the thick of the okra book, I remember thinking I couldn't wait to get back into writing fiction, but in reality once I had finished the manuscript I spent about 18 months catching up on sleep (and starting a non-profit, and surviving a pandemic, and enjoying my wonderful children).

But I'm slowly getting back into it and I've been spending my small chunks of free time focusing on completing my short story collection (actually the final novella), so I can send it out to agents. However, I know the fiction is a long shot and that if I could get a decent proposal together, publishing another nonfiction book would keep me writing and heading in the right direction. But even in that direction I'm unsure where to go, a privileged problem of too many ideas and options...!

Something is going to happen 😊

#Ilovewriting

We picked the first sub 40F night to camp out on t

We picked the first sub 40F night to camp out on the trampoline, under the stars and (bright) moon.

It begins! Big fiber extraction project for a bu

It begins!

Big fiber extraction project for a bunch of Abelmoschus species and a couple of Hibiscus. This is A. tetraphyllus about to be submerged and sealed away for 20 days...

@gabrielle_eitienne

#Okra #okrafiber

Chicken food and book signing at @5sasheville 💚

Chicken food and book signing at @5sasheville 💚

#Okra #thewholeokra

If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd be havin

If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd be having a chat with @sandorkraut about his latest book then there's no way I would have believed you!

Event is hosted by @malapropsbookstore and registration is free via sign up link in my bio.

#Fermentation

Lazy Sunday morning processing hazelnuts. #Hazeln

Lazy Sunday morning processing hazelnuts.

#Hazelnuts #smashem

Let the fermentation begin 🔥 1. Mixed reds (Te

Let the fermentation begin 🔥

1. Mixed reds (Texas Longhorn, Chileton, Mirasol, Tobasco) with sweet red pepper and Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes.
2. Sugar Rush and Habanada with carrot.
3. Aji Lemon Drop and Biquinho White with pineapple.
4. Pasilla Oaxaca with black garlic.
5. Farmer's Market Jalapeno with cilantro and crab apples.

#Hotsauce #hotpeppers #fermentation

Here is a collection of very special pods. Each po

Here is a collection of very special pods. Each pod is from a high oil content okra plant that was crossed with pollen from a different high oil content variety. 39 distinct crosses made with the hope that we can find a gene recombination that boosts oil seed content higher than either parent.

I'm actively seeking a heated lighted greenhouse space so I can grow a small number of F1s over the winter and be ready for F2s next year. I'll be running parent lines through the oil press to begin some pre selection work.

Massive thanks to @oliverfarm for sponsoring (the only USA okra seed oil producer that I know of), @lovesomegreen for support with seeding and growing these varieties, and @row7seeds for plant breeding advice!

This is an ongoing long-term project that will always be open source, if anyone's interested in seeing the parent lines and crosses then let me know! I'll also be writing up a lot of our work and making it available online once we get past harvest and seed saving season!

#Okra #seedoil #plantbreeding #okraoil #longtermgoals

Grow your own straws 💚 Each straw comes with i

Grow your own straws 💚

Each straw comes with its own inbuilt antimicrobial production system i.e okra slime.

#okrastraws #okra #thewholeokra #embracetheslime #shareablestraws

Note: I don't claim to have discovered many things, but the hashtag shareable straws has never been used before...

We're loaded with okra ❤️ #okra

We're loaded with okra ❤️

#okra

This little fella is the size of my thumbnail #fro

This little fella is the size of my thumbnail #frogs

I found some Chinquapins on one of my cycles 😍

I found some Chinquapins on one of my cycles 😍 some of them are already sprouting, I'm definitely going to try growing a bunch of them out this winter! They're very small but very delicious.

#chinquapin #Cycleforaging

Found a bag full of milky caps 🍄 #Mushrooms #f

Found a bag full of milky caps 🍄

#Mushrooms #foraging

I'm still trying to cycle 500 mi before the end of

I'm still trying to cycle 500 mi before the end of September but I keep getting distracted by roadside foraging opportunities, and crazy caterpillars eating hazelnuts leaves!

I've hit my fundraising target, but you can still sponsor my cycling efforts to raise money to fight children's cancer via the link in my bio.

#Cycleforaging #hazelnuts

Abelmoschus tuberculatus, a probable ancestor to o

Abelmoschus tuberculatus, a probable ancestor to our cultivated okra, Abelmoschus esculentus. I've got seeds saved from a single plant, but hope to grow more for observation and seed saving next year.

#Okra #ablemoschustuberculatus

Welcome to my pack 💜

Welcome to my pack 💜

Zoe face planted at the bottom of the slides at @f

Zoe face planted at the bottom of the slides at @frannysfarm. This is after I wiped off most of the dirt. Tough little cookie, this one.

I'm trying to cycle 500 miles in the month of Sept

I'm trying to cycle 500 miles in the month of September to raise $500 for the #greatcyclechallenge Riding to Fight Kids' Cancer. You can donate via the link in my bio.

***All donations made today are being matched**"

I love cycling, but to straddle a well-known term, I've fallen off the bike over the last few years.

When I was a teenager I had five paper rounds and would cycle about 20 mi before school everyday and then cycle to school and then do two paper rounds after school and cycle home. Snow rain ice wind, people expected their paper.

I once cycled with a friend to the French Alps (from London), kayaked for a couple of weeks and then cycled to the Italian Alps, we were aiming for Rome but ran out of money and flew home from Genoa!

With a different friend I cycled from the northern tip of Scotland to the southern tip of England in 7 days averaging about 150 miles a day.

I used to cycle everywhere, I didn't even own a car until well into my 20s. My lack of cycling as part of my American life is actually one of my top sadnesses of living in America (no decent fish and chips, terrible public transport, laughable and unaffordable healthcare, and having children two and a half thousand miles away from their grandparents are some of the others).

People don't seem to respect cyclists in the same way as back home, the roads are not designed for cyclists, there is not a culture of cycling.

Cycling 500 miles in a month is going to be a real challenge for me in a way that it would once have happened naturally within a week, I am actually not sure if I'm going to be able to do it, but I'm really going to try because the cause that I'm raising money for is something that I feel is very important. I can't even begin to imagine how it would feel if my children were faced with a terminal illness.

I've set my fundraising goal at $500, you can donate via the link in my bio ❤️

This okra seed caviar from @hominyfarm was serious

This okra seed caviar from @hominyfarm was seriously one of the best things I've eaten!

This is one of many incredible servings at the root to bloom @chowchow_avl event @lieswine and I attended today.

You can see Belle sporting a bloody mary with an okra pickle and an okra petiole straw in the last picture!

#Okra

I've just realized that it's almost the end of okr

I've just realized that it's almost the end of okra season and I've not promoted my hashtag #dogsloveokratoo

I've been inspired by genius 🌈 ♂️

I've been inspired by genius 🌈 ♂️

I wonder why they call it the zipper spider?

I wonder why they call it the zipper spider?

This poor little hummingbird had a broken neck by

This poor little hummingbird had a broken neck by the large greenhouse windows.

Playing in the dirt 🤎 @leicestergivinggarden

Playing in the dirt 🤎

@leicestergivinggarden

Roasted okra seasoned with Abelmoschus manihot sub

Roasted okra seasoned with Abelmoschus manihot subsp. tetraphyllus var. tetraphyllus flower salt (I'm going to have to think of a catchier name!).

#okrasalt #okra #roastedokra

Went to feed the chickens, found lots of mushrooms

Went to feed the chickens, found lots of mushrooms 🍄

#Oystermushrooms #shiitakemushrooms #mushroomlogs #mushrooms

Exciting to see okra so we'll explored and respect

Exciting to see okra so we'll explored and respected in @cooksillustrated latest edition. Thanks to @lan_cooks for speaking to myself and @soulfoodscholar as she created these recipes and wrote the article 💚

#okra #thewholeokra

Deo earned his farm dog badge today. #GroundhogHu

Deo earned his farm dog badge today.

#GroundhogHunter

@foodordeath_ Roux, take note!!

Sunflowers are actually a collection of lots and l

Sunflowers are actually a collection of lots and lots and lots of flowers. You can see in the second picture the pollen producing anthers and then in the third picture the five petaled flower which is connected to the ovary that will become the seed that you see in the first picture!

Emmy's cutting a path through the okra forest 💚

Emmy's cutting a path through the okra forest 💚

#Okra

Probably picked the wrong night to go camping. 9"

Probably picked the wrong night to go camping. 9" of rain, but we still has fun.

Talked with the girls about adventure and risk management. Cooked s'mores, danced in the rain by the flooded lake, saw some bats and a baby deer. Beautiful post-storm sunshine through the trees in the morning. A spider hitched a ride home with us so we called them Webby and released them into our garden 🕷️🕸️

#fathering #awesomedaughters

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