In our 2017 okra trial, this variety grew the tallest and was highly productive. Plants grow 4-12′ tall with mature pods 10-12, best eaten under 7. Pods are downy (non-spiny), and less mucilaginous (slimy). Solid red stems, petioles and leaf veins, green leaves. Pods start off green and blush red as they mature. In 2017 we had some individual plants that reached 12′ tall. In 2018, the tallest were 8′. Donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 1979 by Jean Sherwood of Lenoir City, TN; who got the seed from her father-in-law, a retired Baptist minister who was half-Cherokee. He was born c. 1915 and said the okra had been grown by his family for a long time on the reservation. Jean’s accompanying letter to Seed Savers Exchange indicated that people preferred this variety to the ordinary green ones typically grown in her area of Tennessee.

60 days to maturity.