The Mexican Cactus

 

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. 

 

 

 

There are dozens of large specimens of Opuntia Humifusa in the Fayetteville Area.

See the fruit? at this stage when they are reddish-purple they are fully ripe.

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 16^th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.

A Profile In Diversity: The Holiday Cacti

            Generally speaking, most people think of cacti in a very limited light; they expect cacti to look like the Saguaro, Prickly pear, Barrel Cactus, or even the Mammillaria, and yet this is only part of the big picture when it comes to Cacti. To further blur the line, a lot of cacti don’t have the word cactus in their common name while a lot of succulents are called cacti but are not. A good example of the former is the Eve’s Needle (Austrocylindropuntia subulata) which is a true cactus and a relative in the Prickly pear family. An example of the latter is the Pencil Cactus (Euphorbia tirucali) which is not a true cactus. To add to this confusion, many thing that cacti grow only in deserts, and dry areas in the Midwest when in fact cacti have adapted to survive on mountainsides (san pedro cactus), grasslands (lawn peyote), and even in forests (the holiday cacti). The diversity as seen is quite impressive and thus many ask what defines a cactus since it’s known that all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti. The key defining features of a cactus are the following.

1.      They tend to originate from habitats with some level of regular drought.

2.      They show a number of adaptations that conserve water.

3.      They generally have a thickened stem structure that stores water.

4.      Most species have lost the ability to produce true leaves.

5.      The spines we see are actually highly modified leaves.

6.      Stems perform photosynthesis.

7.      Cacti often have shallow fibrous root systems designed to suck up any rain that may fall.

8.      Cacti stems are often ribbed which allows them to readily expand or contract during or after a rainfall.

So, with that said in this episode of LITFM, we are going to take a look at one of the most widely distributed true cacti in the world, the Holiday cactus. Now I know I did an episode on this prior but this year I have quite a number of photos to demonstrate the variety of colors that these forest cacti can bring into your home. But first, I know what some of you may be thinking, ‘Christmas Cacti are bland most of the year’, this is absolutely true however they are also one of the most tolerant easily propagated cacti known. This allows for someone to grow them with a minimum of fuss and very little special care other than a repotting every few years.

In fact, the holiday cactus are almost polar opposites in terms of care to what we would actually expect from a cactus, they like soil with organic content, don’t like being pot bound for too long and don’t like bright direct sun.  It is a common trick in the agriculture business to claim there is an absolute difference between the Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti when in fact, the only difference in their bloom time is how many photo periods of increasing and waning sunlight they are exposed to. Thus, you could get an Easter cactus to bloom at Christmas and a Thanksgiving cactus to bloom at Easter with careful management. Generally, there are two primary groups of Holiday cactus in the trade; (Schlumbergia truncata) Christmas Cactus and (Schlumbergia berkleyii) Thanksgiving Cactus. The two are differentiated by the fact that the first one has angular stem segments (they’re called pads) and is commonly also called crab cactus and the second one has rounded stem segments. Literally the number of photoperiods these two species of cacti see is all that differentiates their blooming time but of course we’ve seen this before as this is similar to what is done with Poinsettias and our perennial garden bulbs. Literally on a small scale we are playing a bit of god by tricking a somewhat simpler life form into performing its yearly ritual when it’s convenient for us. In the Agriculture trade we do this a lot; that’s why certain plants arrive at the nursery already blooming in spring, we manipulate temperatures and light and other tricks to get what we want.

But wait, there’s more, there is a third common member of the same family called Hatiora, these thin-stemmed cacti are a forest epiphyte and the most famous representative of this family is commonly called ‘Dancing Bones Cactus’, ‘Spice Cactus’ or, ‘Drunkard’s Dream’ (Hatiora salicornioides). The first name comes from the longer extended stem segments that look like bones and the fact that they tend to sway in the wind giving the illusion of dancing. The third common name comes from the shape of new and intermediate age stem segments which resemble wine bottles. I don’t precisely know where the second nickname came from, but the flowers of this cacti tend to be turmeric-yellow in color so that’s my best bet. The best part is that Drunkard’s Dream takes literally the same care as a Holiday cactus and tends to bloom roughly between February and April which gives it the common name of Easter Cactus. The difference between Drunkard’s Dream and the other holiday cacti is that you can perceive its active growth, as it’s a moderate to somewhat-fast grower especially during summer with regular water and modest fertilizing.

            Propagation of holiday cacti is very easy, simply twist off a stem that has at least three segments dip the open wound in powdered rooting hormone and stick the segment in a new pot with lightly moist soil mix and monitor for dryness over the next few weeks. The new plant should root in three to four weeks and if you are intending to sell, give it an extra four weeks and light fertilizer to get the pads to swell. For note, Schlumbergia, take a bit longer to get to a moderate saleable size often up to two or three months so plan ahead. If your taking cuttings to save a plant or as a gift then they are ready when a gentle tug on the cutting provides resistance. I should note that just because these cacti are forest cacti does not mean they will tolerate being exposed to very bright all-day sun (7+ hours) very cold, or constantly wet. But as promised I have pictures of this year’s Holiday Cactus display which started in December and is nearing its end in February.

 

Pink tubes, white petals - a true bicolor

 This one is the oldest Christmas cactus in the collection, it was bought at Home Despot in New Jersey and made the trip to NC with me back in 2009. the wispy green stuff in the background is the branches of a Hatiora salicornoides  whose origins I cannot recall but have been in that same pot for at least five or six years now.

This is one hell of a shade of red...three technically.

This Christmas cactus was added to the collection along with two others, and according to the color analysis software I used to try and get an idea of what shade of red it is, it's fire engine red, Cranberry red and Crimson depending on the angle. In case you are wondering the blossoms are crinkly like that because I think they got slightly frosted.






This was a mixed colors pot from the same source as the above red one. Pure white with pink accents and incredibly pink bordering on fuchsia. The next two photos are two angles on the same plant.

While labelled as Dark orange, I prefer to call it Fireball orange.

This is  the third one in that group of plants that came from a Sustainable neighbors Seed Swap. Before this Christmas Cactus I did not think they came in any true shade of orange.

Now with 20% more redness!

Here is another red one, labelled as 'very dark red' it sure lived up to it's name. The curling of the petals is an interesting touch. Much like all the schlumbergia in the collection, this is a crab cactus.

Quick shot of Limelight Christmas cactus about to bloom note the bud color.

Now for the big surprise, last year I was offering a unique variety of Christmas cactus called 'lime light' for sale at LeClair's General Store.  What made the variety interesting was that the parent plant demonstrated bold chartreuse blooms. What I did not expect was that the cuttings would throw a curve ball.  As you can see in this shot, the buds aren't white or yellow as expected but largely pink which should have been an indicator of what was about to happen. Normally with Christmas Cactus, the color of the buds is a strong hint to the final color of the bloom.

This true color shot seems to have skewed the color of this Lime Light.

Dancing Bones Cactus

Pictured here is the first bloom of 'Lime Light'. While I realize that the drop cloth and the true-color setting of the camera has skewed the actual color of the bloom,  the bright pink colors in the tube and reproductive parts is accurate. The bloom turned out to be more of a Chartreuse-yellow than a Chartreuse-Green. From my perspective though yellow or green on a Christmas cactus even with pink tones is still a rarity as they are colors you simply do not ever see. In the next week or so I will try a re-shoot of a 'Lime Light' in bloom as the heavily budded cactus in the above picture is about to bloom any day now. I hope I can have a better image up here in the next episode so all of you out there can get a real feel for what 'Lime Light' has to offer.

This is a close up of Hatiora salicornoides, while it is not in bloom you can see why it got the name 'Drunkard's Dream'. The stem segments with age get longer as you can see and they go from a young sort of beer bottle shape to a wine bottle shape and then eventually look like bones.

This brings to a close the first post of February 2018 and a decent look at the biology, growing habits and nature of the holiday cacti. For note this is where the advertising starts because it keeps the Test Garden’s supplied. As always barring terribly wet and cold weather or illness I still manage a vendor’s space at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Maxwell street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. I sell four things primarily during the winter months and they are:

Soup Kits - $6.00

Seasoning Packets – $2.00

Whole Garlic – $1.00

Fresh Organic Ginger - $1.00

Also, I will be bringing a number of random house plants every week if weather permits and While the assortment is purely random, there is not a thing for sale that is above $8.00.

If the market isn’t your thing or your schedule does not allow you to go there my premium exotic house plants can be purchased in attractive clay pots with unique embellishments at LeClair’s General Store. LeClair’s General Store is located on 1212 Fort Bragg Road in Fayetteville North Carolina.

This is their Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/leclairsgeneralstore/

The Visit NC page’s Listing:

https://www.visitnc.com/listing/leclair-s-general-store

These days I am generally at the store at least twice a week, maintaining stock and/or delivering new materials so if you go to visit the store there is a fair chance I’ll be present to answer your questions. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

            This brings to a close the third LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 21^st of February. The topic will be: A Profile In Diversity: The Philodendron Family.

P.S.

            Now is the time to start your hot-season annuals such as peppers, tomatoes and eggplant, but remember you may need a heat mat and humidity domes.