As much as I love living in the Pacific Northwest there are a few things I miss about Texas, actually only two things, okra and white cornbread mix.
I'm not big on veggies, can't say that I've ever been, but there are two that top the list for me, okra and yellow summer squash. The first year we lived in Oregon I was very distressed the stores did not carry okra.
I later learned people in the Pacific Northwest have not acquired a taste for okra because it doesn't grow well here. It takes a long season of very hot sunshine to grow okra. The growing season here is not long enough, the weather is too cool, and there's not enough hot sunshine.
Oh how I longed for okra, but then a WalMart Grocery went in and I thought to myself that just might be the answer I'd been waiting for. Their headquarters is in Arkansas. They should be familiar with okra so off I went and indeed found it frozen. What a wonderful sight.
The same thing happened with cornbread mix. I like white cornbread but could only find yellow. I contacted the Martha White company and was informed it was only distributed in the southern states. The first few years we were here our daughter would bring several packages when she came to visit. WalMart solved that problem as well. I now have two items I buy at WalMart.
A new WalMart Grocery opened near us so I stopped by to see if they stocked okra and white cornbread mix. I discovered they do more than that, they have a small section listed as "Southern Seasoned" food. My southern sister-in-law tells me their Glory brand southern seasoned green beans taste "just like mama used to cook." I'll be checking those out soon.
Have you had such an experience with food?
