Longest okra ever? - Jamaican woman seeks to make Guinness Book of Records

Lapaline Ferron is seeking to make it into the Guinness book of records for having grown the longest okra in the world.

When the housewife from Cockburn Pen, St Andrew, planted a few seeds of okra in her backyard garden, she had no idea that two pods would grow to 18 and a half inches and 16 and a quarter inches.

"I just plant a few okra seeds and I just see it grow and the okra leaf dem get big and then it blossom them look different because them look big and when these come up now, I see them grow long," Ferron told THE STAR.

She believes that one of the pods, which measures 18 and a half inches, could be the longest ever recorded.

"I googled and found out that the longest okra ever recorded is 18 inches," she said.

18-INCH OKRA

Checks by THE STAR reveals that a Malaysian woman grew an 18-inch okra. Checks on guinnessworldrecords.com did not turn up any results for the current record.

Meanwhile, Ferron told THE STAR that she did not use fertiliser on the plant.

"You know say me no do nutten different. The peelings from the kitchen me throw it at the root and water it. Well, I have a fish tank, so I use the water from the fish tank cause them say that good for the plans," she said.

Although she believes that her love for the plant help to grow to extraordinary lengths, Ferron said she has reaped and cooked some of the okras off the tree before they had grow to such whopping lengths.

"I cooked them and they were very soft and more growing the tree," she said.

Along with okra, Ferron cultivates spinach, callaloo and escallion among other things in her backyard garden. She also said that she has reaped a yam that was very large from her garden as well.

"I did have a yam that grow 25 pounds sometime ago," she said.

In the meantime, Ferron is encouraging other Jamaicans to start a backyard garden of their own.