Like Eating Snot?

On of the stranger vegetables in my garden is okra, which is sometimes called gumbo.

Okra is native to Africa and it likes hot weather, which is probably why it is much more popular in the south than in the north. This year my early plantings did not germinate--I think the soil was too cold.

Okra has one of the prettiest flowers of any vegetable. I think it could even be grown as a flower.
After the flower falls off, the pod develops very quickly and after a few days it is ready to be picked and eaten. If it is not picked soon enough, the pod gets very woody.
The neatest thing about okra is that it is slimy. Some people find the sliminess offensive--one family member maintains that eating okra is like eating snot. Maybe--I do not remember what eating snot was like, and I am not willing to test that assertion. I do find that eating okra is very funny because it has such an unusual texture. I cannot help but smile every time I eat one. The humor of eating okra, and its funny name, are major reasons that I enjoy this vegetable.

Last year after the frost, I pulled the plants. I found that the sliminess was not confined to the fruit. It seems to pervade the whole plant.

Can I squeeze some economics in here? Maybe it illustrates de gustibus non est disputandum.