I sure do love generous people!
I had actually been admiring these plants for years now, and once I commented on them, the owners told me I was free to take some home with me to grow on our homestead!
BIG, BEAUTIFUL, EDIBLE CACTI
When my mom and @grandpa-pepper came for their last visit, they stayed at the same place that @vcelier did when he visited us last year. The photo above is of the room that my folks stayed in.
On each side of the door is a large pad type cacti, which people sometimes call a prickly pear. There are many pad types of cacti around the world, and as far as I know, they are all edible.
Here is a video of me eating some down in Texas last year. Both the pads and the fruit are edible, and we really enjoy eating them both. If you've haven't tried them, you should find someone who eats them near you and see if they can share some knowledge and food.
This is the one growing on the other side of the door. As you can tell, it is a large healthy plant with a lot of new growth. It is already starting to grow new pads and flowers, so there should be some good fruit later on this year.
At the room next to theirs was this type of cactus, which it not a pad-type cacti, so I'll treat it as an ornamental. They said that this one gets beautiful purple flowers, so we took a few pieces of them too.
On mature plants, some of the pads may fall off or be bumped off. This is one way to propagate these wonderful plants, and this is what I was looking for. Rather than tearing off the pads that were still connected to the cactus, I thought it would be best to collect a few fallen pads to plant back at home.
FISHING FOR CACTUS PADS
On my fallen pad collection journey, I noticed this one deep in the center of the mature cactus. I knew that it could be obtained, but I'd have to figure out how, since my arm would not reach and the cactus is covered in tiny spines.
I had some fishing poles with me, so I figured I'd give that a try. I tied a hook to the last eyelet on the rod and decided to go for it. The long pole could reach where I could not and the hook would hopefully be strong enough and large enough to hook the pad.
Thankfully, I was able to get the hook into the cactus pad, but now came the hard part; lifting it out without bumping it off.
Much like those "claw machines" full of stuffed animals, the excitement as the pad neared the top was high. This is normally when the pink teddy bear slips through the smooth metal claws of the machine when it jerks unexpectedly, so I had to be extra careful.
Looks like all those quarters I've spent over the years finally paid off! I actually won this time! LOL.
Anyway, hopefully we will eventually have some nice big, beautiful, edible cacti growing on our land. Because of the generosity of the resort owners, we've now got some great pads to try with! I'll let you know how it turns out.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-cacti
Until next time…
FOR MORE PAPA-PEPPER CONTENT, CHECK ME OUT ON SOLA
Free food is everywhere!....:)...
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Yup, that's the goal!
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That was really nice of the resort owners! I hope they grow once you get home and plant them in your garden :)
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These cactus gardens are beautiful, they are certainly of great health benefits, help to lose weight, control bad, cholesterol and is also an antioxidant thanks to its wide variety of vitamins such as A , B, C, E and minerals, very good post, thanks for sharing @ papa-pimienta.
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Thanks for this infor i lovely see this plant around my area, seriously i dont know it usefulness thanks for educating us @papa-pepper how is your day going sir
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My day is well. How is yours?
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My day is fun here thanks so much sir
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Wowwww that's like so amazing. I've taken an interest in cacti over the last year and think that'd be soooo neat! Btw, I'm gonna try to do the password thing soon!
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this plant is very nice, but many people say this captus plant is venomous, it is true @papa-pepper.
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It would be nice to get entire album image collections of cactus together
That would be cool
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Wow. Is cactus edible
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Smart thinking, grow them under your windows. Make it harder for someone trying to break in your house. I didn't know they can grow in Arkansas.
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LOL - Good idea! There are at least a few varieties that can grow in Arkansas.
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Initiative work @papa-pepper
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It's a very nice project that I really liked. I really wish I could have done something like this in front of my house, but I am very inspired to see your project, but I want to project it in front of you too. @papa-pepper
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That is awesome ... looking great from that front door ... dad had many of it planted for the purpose of heath tho(herbs) not for flower purposes..
Maybe this different from what you post.
But there is one similar to the one who posted above.... just had no pic of that one..
Mess.you a while ago
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Here in Mexico we call them "nopales". You can fry the pads, put some cheese on top and make a delicious nopal sandwich. Or you can chop them, boil them for ten to fifteen minutes, add some chopped tomato and salt and eat them on tacos. Delicious.
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Oh no... those things are the Devil! I mean, yes, they are technically edible, but they are awful. We have them all over the place here, and they shoot needles at you from across the yard, (with magic, I think!), and some of those needles are invisible and impossible to remove!
If I were in a survival situation, I guess I would try to eat them, but for now, they are the worst! I am all for propagating edibles, but not these.
When we first moved here, we thought, how cool! Cacti in the yard!!!
Many, many needles and tears later, it is actually not cool at all...
:(
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I hope that my venture goes better than yours. OUCH!
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Haha I hope so too! Best of luck!
Fun fact: If you run over them with a mower, they will get chopped into a zillion pieces. Each piece will grow a new stabby-booby-trap... I mean, cactus.
Hopefully the variety you're growing is better, and hopefully being farther north, your winters will keep them from running amok. ;)
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thank you for the information, this is one of my favorite parks, I plant a lot of plants last year, but apadaya due to widening the road in front of the house, the plant I have to unplug and do not have time to plant again
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Love prickly pears (It was my nickname) What an ingenius way to fish for some cuttings
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Thanks for this post @papa-pepper.
Wise idea using that tool to fish for cactus pads.
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I actually have a lot of this cactus growing on our homestead. But I am unsure of how to prepare it. Could you or Mama-Pepper possibly do a post on how to prepare this food? Thanks.
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I think the cactus is cool. Got my first pad to propagate this early spring. Doing good. Just transplanted to larger pot. Has grown a new pad already.
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Really informative
I had no idea these plants are even edible.I'm really hoping to get a bite soon
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I had no idea cacti plants were edible how do you cope with the tiny spines @papa-pepper?
Shout out to those generous owners who gave out the cacti plants.
And your smart for not using your hand to fish for the matured cacti pad, the fishing poles helped.
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These thing grow natural all over my property here. Use to mow them down when they would start but after I found out what they were we just let them grow and are not transplanting them. Will be using them as a border outside my electric fences. Any way special you like eating them?
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buenos captu.
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that was an awesome cactus,i would like to plant those beautiful cactus too!
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That's awesome of those folks to spread the prickly love. What do they taste like?
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Hey my friend, when I used to travel into Mexico frequently, many of the restaurants
, as well as many home I have eaten in, served a salsa that was served hot, it contained meat and strips of this cactus! One of my favorites on hand made corn tortillas. Provecho!
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I like your creativity and willingness to try new things. I hope they work out and that you're able to get another healthy species growing. (well, two of them, but one that you can eat)
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Yeah, I have a few smaller, more thorny varieties, but these would be great! Thanks man with no name.
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