Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market blog. As some of you have noticed the blog has taken on a more formal instructional tone to cover the wide variety of forage foods that you can find all around you. This change came about due to the events of the pandemic, economic turmoil and other factors. The reality is that we are surrounded with perfectly edible plants that can fill at least some of the void in our dietary needs but, there is a multi-million dollar herbicide industry that exists. It has always been in the interest of that industry to label certain things ‘weeds’ so they can sell you product that as time goes by we find out is worse for your health than the weeds are. Coupled with an Agricultural-Education system that peddles the myths of the industry and the old myth that if you can afford a nice lawn you must have wealth we have a population that has been fooled for a long time. So, here we are in 2023, and the forage foods series will continue. I hope all of you who read this blog find the information useful or at least thought provoking. The ‘weeds’ I am listing a certainly found in Zone 8A in North Carolina and should certainly be easy to find in the Southeast regions of America. Oh, and one funny thing discovered in last year’s blog, it turns out you can eat Crab Grass, and while it isn’t what most would call a lawn grass, I did state you can’t eat your lawn in last year’s intro. Detailed research is a funny thing since it has a way of proving even the experts wrong.
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| There are dozens of large specimens of Opuntia Humifusa in the Fayetteville Area. |
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| See the fruit? at this stage when they are reddish-purple they are fully ripe. |
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| Although I could not locate a example of it, there are varieties of this cactus that bloom pink and others that bloom red. |
Common Name: Prickly Pear
Other Common Names: Spreading Prickly Pear, Lawn Peyote, Indian Fig, Devil’s Tongue.
Botanical Family: Cactaceae (The Cactus Family)
Botanical Latin Name: Opuntia humifusa
Description & Habitat: Prickly pear is best known for its flat thick succulent leaves (aka pads) and its variable growth habit. Depending on location and if it is cared for or simply ignored it might grow to heights of up to six feet tall or may just sort of sprawl across an area rooting wherever it’s pads touch the earth for any decent period of time. It is a perennial in USDA zones 4-9, and it reproduces by way of shed pads and by seeds from its edible fruits. Additionally shards of this plant’s pads may also take root so it is fairly persistent and can be grown as a forgeable food source. In the wild this plant is found in low maintenance areas such as turf grass areas that do not receive regular maintenance and it prefers sandy soils. It can also be found on rocky bluffs, sand dunes and, dry rocky or sandy grasslands. Sometimes it is planted intentionally as a no-maintenance decorative plant or as a barrier near businesses in the urban environment.
When & What to Harvest: With prickly pears you generally have two options for what to harvest; the fruit and the young pads. For harvesting the pads, wear protective leather gloves and remove young pads in the spring and summer. As a special note and thank you to the University of Nevada, Reno for having this tip on their website, it is best to pick prickly pear pads from Mid-morning to Mid-afternoon. This is because the Prickly pear acid content is higher at other times of the day and the pads flavor will be much less desirable. Pick fruits as they ripen and turn reddish-purple in late summer and autumn.
Poisonous Lookalikes: None.
Related Edible Species: Opuntia cacanapa ‘Ellisiana’ – Spineless Pricky Pear, Opuntia gosseliniana – Violet Prickly Pear, Opuntia santa-rita – Santa Rita Prickly Pear. There are many species of true Opuntia that have edible pads and fruit.
Recipe: So there are a lot of ideas and recipes for this plants two primary food materials on the internet and in the books I read in preparation for this post. Here is just a sampling of some ideas that you can implement. Let’s start with those young tender Prickly Pear pads; the fastest way to get the spines off them is to gently use a stick lighter to burn off the spines. The big spines look terribly imposing, but it’s the fine hairy looking ones which are called glochids that you really have to worry about these are even present on ‘spineless’ prickly pears which simply lack the bigger more wicked looking spines. Gently flaming the white or tan colored glochids will scorch them off. Alternately you could take the time and use the eye removal part of a potato peeler to remove them but this can be quite time consuming per pad.
Once you’ve removed your cactus pad’s defenses, you can either peel them right off or cook them over an open flame and peel once they have reached a desired level of tenderness. You can then slice them and eat them like string beans or some other short cooking time green vegetable. They can be somewhat sticky once cooked like this which leads to the other means of cooking them. You can deep fry them like you might French fries or onion rings. A third alternative is to remove the spines of the pads and then cut them to size and put them in a large pot of water with some garlic, onions and bullion for flavor and bring to a boil and maintain the boiling for about 15 minutes or so.
The following additional recipes are curtesy of the University of Nevada, Reno:
Prickly Pear Lemonade: (modified a bit for clarity)
¼ Cup cactus juice
2 Large lemons
3 Cups of sugar
4 ½ cups of warm water
-Juice the prickly pears and lemons separately and then combine the juices.
-Add sugar.
-Add the water and stir until the sugar dissolves.
-Chill for an hour, this should make about two pints of beverage.
Cactus Jelly:
4 Cups of cactus fruit juice (½ lemon juice can be substituted if desired)
5 Cups of sugar
2 Packages of pectin
-Put juice in a large pot and bring to a hard boil.
-Add sugar and boil for an additional three minutes or until the mixture becomes a gel.
-Pour the mix into sterilized jars and seal.
Grilled Nopales:
Cactus nopales (aka a cactus pad or paddle)
Olive oil
-Although simple, nopales can be delicious simply grilled.
-Take the prepared (De-spined) nopales after being cut,
-Brush olive oil onto the skin. (This is also where you might want to season them)
-Grill to the desired level of tenderness.
Special note: The title of this post is a song ‘The Mexican Cactus’ is by Jean Jacques Perrey.
With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 2:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.
For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.
Fresh Produce:
Garlic Bulbs
Soup Kit – Parsnip
Soup Kit – Turnip
Coming Soon:
Spring Garden Plants are due in March 2023.
How to stay in Contact with Us!
Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.
Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville
Also please take a gander at the YouTube version of this blog:
The Videos: Look Here
>Newest videos (1): ‘Grassie Lassie’ Aloe
Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on February 16th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.
