As a child, I never encountered okra unless disguised or unknowingly snuck into something like canned soup. I was simply unaware of its existence. I grew up in the 1950s, and my mother served us basic meat and potato meals, plus the popular Campbell’s soups: chicken noodle when sick, tomato soup when eating a grilled cheese sandwich and vegetable soup during the winter. Mom admittedly was not the best cook, and her repertoire of fresh vegetables consisted of iceberg lettuce, celery, carrots and potatoes, corn on the cob, and tomatoes added in the summer. Frozen vegetables that supplemented our diet became peas, corn, mixed vegetables, succotash, and the unpopular, lima beans.
