PRICKLY PEAR

PLANT OF THE MONTH

 

THE LIFE-SAVING PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS (OPUNTIA SP.)

Growing up in Southern California, we saw various cacti all the time – in people’s yard, in fields, in the deserts, in the mountains.  They are everywhere! By far the most common cacti are the prickly pears, the oval flat pads which can grow into huge clumps.

When I graduated from high school, I decided to attend a language school in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  I took a bus from Tijuana, and spent the next 3 days riding a bumpy bus all the way south.  I found the poor villages in the northern desert very interesting.  Every home was a square with an opening for windows and the door, and every home had tall prickly pear cactus “trees” just outside, and usually there was a goat tied nearby.

The goats ate all the new prickly pear cactus pads (called “nopales”) which created the tall trunk, making these all look like trees.  And for most people, prickly pears have become associated with poverty, and being a poor man’s food because you can’t afford anything else.

But in fact, the prickly pear pad and fruit are great food and medicine.  Some even call it a “superfood.”

DINNER TIME: Cactus as food!

The young tender cactus pads, once they have been cleaned of their glochids and spines, have been used for centuries as food in a variety of ways. They can be eaten raw (in salads, or as a nibble), or made into a juice. They are typically cooked in vegetable dishes or with eggs.

The pads can also be dried, and ground into flour, and then mixed with another flour (like corn) to make traditional tortillas.

The ripened fruit is another popular food from the prickly pear cactus. The fruits need to be  carefully collected and the spines and glochids wiped or burned off.  The fruit is edible and sweet, and has long been used to make drinks, pie fillings, candy, and jams.  Because the fruit is full of small seeds, they are usually removed first.  The easiest way to remove the seeds is to remove the skin of the fruit, and then blend the fruit in an electric blender. Pour the slurry through a sieve to remove the seeds.

I have had  a delicious pie made from these fruits.  Blend the de-seeded fruit  with tofu and perhaps some yogurt.  Use this as a pie filling, by pouring into a  whole wheat pastry shell, and then baking until done.

“EAT YOUR MEDICINE”: Cactus as Medicine.

Modern medicine has confirmed that eating the prickly pear cactus pads (or making juice of them) can help those who suffer from diabetes. For additional scientific data, see “Prickly Pear Cactus Medicine” by Ran Knishinsky. This book provides the scientific evidence that prickly pear cactus fruits and pads are useful for treating diabetes, cholesterol, and the immune system.

 

Here is the nutritional breakdown for prickly pear cactus pads and fruits, from Knishinsky’s book:

AMINO ACID PROFILES

1. per gram of dehydrated nopal (cactus pad).

 

From the book “Prickly Pear Cactus Medicine” by Knishinsky. 

 

SURVIVAL

When water is needed, you could clean the spines and glochids and eat the pads for your water. They are 90% water, and though they are not going to quench your thirst like cool water, they will prevent dehydration.

The juice or gel from inside the cactus pad can also be used like Aloe vera gel. Cut open the pad, and put the wet side of the pad onto a wound, burn, or cut.

Prickly pears are often covered with a bug called cochineal, which appears as a whitish bit of fuzz. This bug can be crushed to produce a red dye. The red dye has historically been used to dye clothes, or to make ink or paint.

 

HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS:

There are over a hundred species of Opuntia.   This species of cacti have more-or-less oval-shaped flat pads, whose surfaces are covered with evenly-spaced spines.  At the base of each spine is a tuft of fine hair called glochids.  There are a few spineless varieties, but they are exceptions.  The fruits are oval-shaped, maturing in around September, and can be green, yellow, orange, red, or purple when mature.

These are native to the Americas, and common in Mexico and parts of the drought-prone central, southern, and western U.S. states.  Generally thought of as desert plants, these are in fact quite widespread and some can be found throughout the world.

 

BACKYARD ADVICE:

Prickly pears are readily propagated by planting a pad vertically in well-drained desert potting soil.  Within a few weeks, or months in some cases, new pads will start to grow. These require sun and good drainage.  Over-watering is the biggest cause of death for cultivated Opuntias.

The new tender pads appear throughout the spring, though you could eat even the older pads by removing the skin and outer layer of fibres.  The fruits mature in fall, typically throughout September.

 

OLD FAMILY RECIPES:

Desert Delectable (An Omelet)

2 cups prickly pear cactus pads, peeled and diced

Butter

2 cups onions, diced

6 eggs

Once the pads are peeled and diced, place them in the heated and buttered frying pan.

Saute at a low temperature, and add the diced onions in 5 minutes. Continue to saute

until the cactus changes in color from bright green to a dull green, almost browned.

Add the eggs, already beaten, and cook omelet-style.

Serve with a warm tortilla and either a pickled jalepeno chile, or a pickled kelp bladder.

SERVES THREE.

 

Prickly Pear Ice Cream

10 ripe cactus fruits

1 gallon almond milk (or regular milk)

Carefully peel the cactus fruits, being careful not to get the tiny spines in your skin.  Put the peeled fruit into a blender, and blend. Then pour the pulp through a sieve which should effectively remove all the seeds.

Put the fruit pulp (either strained or unstrained) and milk into an ice-cream maker,

electric or hand-crank, and proceed to make ice cream. Another method is to simply

mix together the milk (or, better yet, cream) and the thoroughly mashed fruit pulp, and

put it into your freezer. In approximately 2 hours, you’ll have a product resembling ice

cream.