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Pick them about 3 inches in size. Bigger than 4 inches it will be too tuff. I have a pair of garden scissors or shears-- not sure the proper name-- but they will cut through without a problem. Knife is too much work. My dad uses pocket knife for his. with the shears you can use one hand to hold your bucket & one to cut. For saving seeds-- usually when you are tired if harvesting just don't touch the plant again. The new pods will dry in place & you will have more seeds than you can use. Or use the pods for Christmas ornaments.
We wear an apron with the corners penned up so both hands are free for picking. I hold the stem with one hand and snap off the 3 inch pods with the other hand. At the end of the row, I dump my apron into a bucket. If a pod is too tough to snap it's probably too tough to cut for fried okra. I bend the pod over so it points to the ground and let it go ahead and form seed. In the fall when the plants are done....or we are done picking, we pull up the plants and snip off the dry pods. We store in a paper sack until the seed cures...then it's a matter of rolling the pods between your hands to open up the seed rows...wear gloves for this. The pods make good mulch under the bushes. Note..If you wait until a freeze hits the plants, the stalks are slimey and you have to wait until later in the winter to pull the stalks.
