Prickly Pear Cactus

So, today I finished purchasing the last of my recently acquired Opuntia cacti.  I will post pics when I have them all planted.  But I have managed to obtain mostly spineless varieties and even got to harvest a couple of pads from my next door neighbor's unwanted plant behind her fence.  Pretty cool, right? 

If you don't know the prickly pear cactus is an amazing plant!  You can harvest the pads and make edible Nopales (kinda like a cross between okra and a green bean) that you can eat in eggs, with meat, or as a side dish!  There are lots of medical advantages being researched too.  Like, for instance the ability to help level your blood sugar.  These pads have been sliced open and applied to wounds and burns (sunburns especially) and even to breasts to ease discomfort due to breast feeding.  The mucilaginous quality of this plant can be a little disconcerting, but it has great applications!

The Prickly Pear has long been known as a fruity treat in the Southwest as well as along the Mediterranean where it has naturalized.  Prickly Pear originated in the South and Central Americas and has migrated over seas to Europe, Asia, and Africa!  The fruit is high in antioxidants and you can find Prickly Pear jelly, juice, syrup, and wine online and in some ethnic super markets.  The fruits come in colors ranging from yellow to green, red, orange, magenta and deep purple.  For centuries this plant has played a major role in Indian cooking and cuisine.  The fruits were used fresh and dried and the seeds were often parched and ground up for use as a flour.

This family of cactus is marvelous!  Not only is it good as fodder (assuming your livestock can handle the glochids and avoid spines; some ranchers burn them off to assist their livestock in consumption), but they are great sources of water in dry times.  One study noted that sheep could live for somewhere from 5 - 8 months without water when a significant source of Opuntia was present! 

Now, don't get me wrong, in some areas, this guy has definitely become invasive, but the benefits of this plant to the agricultural world is really amazing if more folks were educated about it's advantages and uses!  In the older days, here in the southwest, ranchers and homesteaders would often use these spiny plants as living fences.  They're pretty formidable against man and beast (some of the varieties can have spines in excess of 3 inches!!!)  What a great way to keep out coyotes and other predators as well as providing a readily available source of fodder and human food in hard times.

Well, that's all for now.  I'll post pics of my planted pads once I receive them all and get them all potted up!

Happy Planting!
-The Heiress