...lol...good guess. No, but I'll give a clue, it came from my garden...and I've been growing them this big for about 4 years now and saving some of the the seeds each year for following year's garden...never seen any that grow anywhere near as big as these.
...hammer, they're actually one of the easiest veggies to grow...disease and drought tolerant, pretty much dummy proof as opposed to tomatoes, cukes, et al...once they start fruiting you need to pick them nearly every day which encourages even more flowering...I had about 25 plants this year in addition to my oriental cukes, tomatoes, squash, and a few beans and peas...from about June till last week when I harrowed the plants up, I was averaging about 30 okra pods every day...I'd then blanch them and put 'em in freezer bags. Hell, we pickle em, fry 'em, boil 'em, but my favorite way is to wait until a pot of butter beans or peas are just about done and then add a bag of okra on top of them...let 'em cook for about 10 minutes...and DAYYYAMN !...cook some cracklin' bread, and you're good to go. ...give a try next year. If you have any yard at all clear out a spot about 4' x 4' and just buy the seedlings (easier than starting them from seeds) from home depot, lowes, or wherever and you can almost turn your back on them until they start flowering...4 or 5 plants spaced about a foot or so apart should be enough.
59, I own restaurants, been around a lot of exotic and different foods, but I would of have loss the farm on that one...
...I was in the restaurant/lounge business myself for awhile...very demanding, grueling, competitive, and fickle business. One bad inspection from the man is all it takes...and you're dead. Once you lose your clientele it's hard to win them back.
With mobile apps like Yelp, trip advisor, urban spoon and so forth, you are right, fortunately for us, we are highly ranked and have a unique menu and are located on water. You are never really off.
...if I were in the Keys, I wouldn't care if the specialty of the house was turds and rice. ..are you familiar with a guy named Mel Fisher?...I have one of his "pieces of six" from the Atocha shipwreck on a chain around my neck as we speak...had it for over 20 years now...never take it off.
Mel is a legend down here. Did you ever see the movie where Cliff Robertson plays Mel, priceless. There are 2 or 3 Jewelers down here that specialize in unique pieces designed with Atocha. I'm not familiar with the "Pieces of Six" but I am with what they call Pieces of Eight. And specialize in Turds like Forrest Gump friend did Shrimp lol. http://www.ancientresource.com/images/pirate-shipwreck-treasure/atocha/atocha-at121101.jpg
...a piece of six is smaller than a piece of eight and is slightly larger than a quarter. ...I lived in Key West and Boca Chica Key when I was younger and knew Mel casually before he found the Atocha. The poor guy lost his Son and daughter in law looking for the Atocha and went bankrupt a few times. But everyone liked him and people would give him maybe $1000 or so and say "Mel, here, go get your electricity cut back on and pay tour mortgage."...he never forgot those people who stood by him during the bad times. And those people became millionaires once he finally found it. Thought it was pretty shitty of the state of Florida to ignore him all those years until it was announced that he'd located the shipwrecked treasure, and then of course they decided that they wanted their cut, then the Feds got involved and wanted a cut. After years of lawsuits and lawyers and appeals, the high court finally said, basically "finders-keepers, leave the man alone". ...great guy, great story...National Geographic did a helluva documentary on it.
You a Parrot Head 59? That is exactly how the locals tell it about Mel. It's changed so much down here, and not for the best. The middle class has been forced out because of cost of living down here. Was down for fantasy fest 2 weeks or so ago, still crazy. One of my friends father was Ted Williams best friend and guide, he brought in a couple of scrapbooks of Ted and his dad, it was crazy.
...HELL YEAH !...been to Buffett's house about 3 blocks from where A1A dead ends, or something like that. Of course, he was not home at the time...lol. ...though I knew who he was, I did not become a fan until July 4th 1977. I went to see the Eagles at the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando. (Hotel California had just come out)...Hall and Oates were also there as well as Andrew Gold. The Eagles got top billing because, well, the were The Eagles. But Jimmy Buffett stole the show. He did about a 15 minute version of "God's Own Drunk" and I was hooked...he also proceeded to incite a paper cup fight among the 50,000 people there. Amazing thing to see that many wadded up paper cup flying around. The reefer being passed around was also part of the festivities. ...the next day I went out and bought every album of his that I could and have been a fan ever since. I was also in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre on Aug 12th of '78 I think when he was there for 3 days and was recording the concert that would be released as "You Had to Be There"...and I was. I think "He Went to Paris" is my fav. And I used to love to listen to his harmonica player "Fingers Taylor". I used to envy his life back then...go out to seas for 2-3 months, right a few songs, come back to the mainland, record and album...back out to sea again and start the whole process over again...some tough life he leads.
