Very pretty,but ugh!!!! It's been blooming like crazy. Now I do think it is very pretty,but I hate the stuff...it flats the tires on the tractor..goes through tennis shoes..each little piece makes a new one..it's everywhere!!! I've been told you can peel it and cook it up as a veggie,make jelly or wine. OK fine,but when the yard is full of it no going barefoot. Soooo anyone who wants to come over and dig some up be my guest..I even have a handy tool..just no iron gloves!!!
well, if I lived in Florida I'd come by........LOL. It is pretty but I guess if it's growing like mad it could be a pain in the you know what :)
Hi Ginger_H,
My husband and I broke down in Ca. with an 18wheeler near a mexican family`s home. It was 6 0`clock to us but 4 to them. Later that morning the son came down and asked if he could help and did so. Later that afternoon he came back and said that he had fixed us some lunch because he knew that we had been there all day. It was cactus cut up in small strips and cooked with eggs and green onions in an omlet. It was the best thing that I`d ever tasted. The cactus tasted like green beans. His Mother also sold the cactus pickeked I think.
It's beautiful, but I don't think I want to tangle with it, looks pretty vicious to me!
BOO-HOO...Ginger, you don't like my beautiful Prickley Pear! If it wasn't for Cactus, I wouldn't have any flowers! Poor Babies...I guess I could add them to my "brood"....send them on out...or just water them to death....LOL Jo
Ah, yes ~ prickly pear cactus, AKA napolitos in Mexico. They can be a bear, can't they?! Pull them up and put 'em in a pile to dry out all summer and they'll sprout with the next spring's rains right on top of the pile. We've got a few, but not that many, thanks to Grandpa Wall. Years ago he got after them with a pear burner (giant blowtorch) and burned the spines off so the cows could eat them. They did a rather thorough job of it in the hayfields! Those same fields have been laying fallow for twenty years now, so the pears have found their way back. We just bought another skid-steer loader (big bobcat tractor) and I'll bet it'll do as good a job on them as those cows did. ;-) I think I will keep a few by the front gate ~ they ARE pretty when they bloom!
I wish someone would decide to come by with a fleet of 18 wheelers and raid my cactus patch, all 25 acres or more of it. And take the tassojillo while you're out there. Yes, every little piece of both, and I still think it would be back in a year or two. Wildlife carries the seed and drops it. Flowox, I can send you a little cute baby one that just came up in my new bed, apparently planted by the flying gardeners, and you can keep it in a pot. It will bloom in about 3 years, and will stay relatively contained in the pot. In your area, I doubt it will be such a problem since you have cold winters. And for anyone who wants nopalitoes, the cactus pads cleaned for cooking, harvest to your heart's content. In spite of the fact that they are so abundant, the stores here actually sell a single pad, barely stripped of those treacherous barbs and wrapped in plastic film, for a dollar. I thought I might set up a table at my driveway with a tub full of them for half a buck apiece. Or maybe just uproot a clump and let people cut off what they wanted and do their own cleaning, about 5/$1? The "apples" are an oblong sort of fruit, burgundy colored, and they are the source of the jelly. Mixed with jalapeno, it is pretty lively, or sweetened and jelled it's a sweet treat. The juice stains, though. This plant can be credited with nurturing tens of thousands of people on their journey from Mexico across Texas.
What interesting stories regardin this poor pitiful plant.......I had no idea what a pest this cactus could be.
I have seen themin the grocery stores, but never priced them as I dont know anything about them.
Aimee, I would think that you could make some money if you did dig them up and sold them.....
The jelly sounds interesting.
