Category Archives: Okra Paradise Farms

Half way between Atlanta and Orlando and all the way to paradise!

Cat face, beaver pond 2020-06-16

Back in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, my father and grandfather paid off the mortgage on the farm through income from turpentine. This is a catface, where the bark was scraped off a pine tree so its sap would ooze out, to be caught in a metal cup nailed below on the tree.

[Catface and beaver pond]
Catface and beaver pond

The rest of the tree long ago was logged.

Behind the pine tree stump and the adjoining oak tree, you can see a beaver pond. Continue reading →

Swamp rosemallow with a bee 2020-06-05

There’s a bee in the bonnet of this Swamp rosemallow.

[In rosemallow]
In rosemallow

Each flower of Hibiscus moscheutos blooms for only one day.

[With bee]
With bee

But each plant has multiple blooms, such as the one Gretchen pictured on a later day.

This plant is on the path to the garden.

-jsq