I was hiking today out at a place called Blue Mound State Park in minnesota, USA and came upon this beautiful fruity smell that hung in the nares for but a moment when the wind was coming from a certain direction. It was amazing.

A kindly woman ventured a guess at the fermenting prickly pear fruit:



She went on to say that the Native Americans consumed it and was very sweet.

I had to find out more. They were easy to find, thus the photo.

I was so enamored by the smell that I haphazardly delved into the cactus, consequently, poking myself repeatedly. That did not deter me and I got my fruit.

Biting in, I really enjoyed the jelly like consistency. The seeds reminded me of a choke cherry and there were many of them. Not much meat in those delicacies.

I took another fruit and I'm going to attempt to grow some of my own. Apparently, they grow really well.

My friend that accompanied me:



did not fair so well. He ended up with some smaller spines in his mouth. I could not help but to chuckle a bit at his misfortune. Needless to say, he did not enjoy them as much as I.

All in all, it was a pretty good great day:



david

Nice pictures, dvdai. Glad you had a very nice day!

Golly - you live in a lovely place

Great pics nothing better than a day in the sun out in nature.

hear, hear!

david

Lovely!

Nice dvdai. I like the cactus picture with all the vibrant life around it, the lichen, grass, fallen leaves. I'm surprised to see it's in Minnesota.

To get more even better fruit plant the seeds around. To add more possibilities for new and better fruits exchange seeds with people across America. Seed savers exchange perhaps.

[www.seedsavers.org]

Here's a good article on beaver tail cactus. It grows from South America to Canada:

[www.rain.org]

brome Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nice dvdai. I like the cactus picture with all the
> vibrant life around it, the lichen, grass, fallen
> leaves. I'm surprised to see it's in Minnesota.

The weather has been great lately, hope it sticks around. I was surprised by the abundance of the cacti.

> To get more even better fruit plant the seeds
> around.

I'm missing something here. Could you clarify this statement? I do want more and better fruit. How do I do that?

>To add more possibilities for new and
> better fruits exchange seeds with people across
> America. Seed savers exchange perhaps.
> [www.seedsavers.org]

This sounds like a great idea. I'll look more into it.

> Here's a good article on beaver tail cactus. It
> grows from South America to Canada:
>
> [www.rain.org]
> ml/pricklypear.htm

I'll take a look at this one to at a later time. Taking the weekend off left me a bit swamped and playing catch up.

Thanks for the info!

david

> To get more even better fruit plant the seeds
> around.

Planting the seeds in likely looking spots in the area you found the fruit and in other similar habitat will give you more plants and hence more fruit. By selecting just the best fruit for seeds you will end up getting better fruit. And by exchanging your best seeds with the best seed of others across the nation, the interbreeding plants will eventually get all best characteristics into one line of plants. This is how evolution works and how plant breeders from the Old World to the New World developed better crops, before the modern tragedy of commercialized seed companies that throw out diversity for a monocultural hybrid seed so that they can gouge the world for profit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2010 04:59AM by brome.

what he/she said^^^

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

The fragrance of grapes has been on the air here for a couple weeks. It let me to a patch where I gathered enough for a meal, but not without getting tripped up in the vines and falling face first into the poison ivy undergrowth. It was a good time anyway.

ha ha.. your poor friend

i can commiserate

i gravitate towards prickly pear too
its great when they are ripe as well

otherwise ,they are not very good at all

but yeah, it really IS an ordeal to get the inner part
without getting all the very fine needles onto your tongue and lips and gums

its hard to do

but kinda worth it

i had TWO friends that did not fare as well either

because they didn't have as much horrible practice as i did

i say horrible because when you make a "mistake" its not very fun

and your mouth hates you for it

nothing like the feeling of having spiny needles in your inner lips

nevertheless

i like them

probably because

they are just there for the taking

and it is an ART to eat one of those things
without getting attacked

LOL

la_veronique Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ha ha.. your poor friend
>
> i can commiserate
>
> i gravitate towards prickly pear too
> its great when they are ripe as well
>
> otherwise ,they are not very good at all
>
> but yeah, it really IS an ordeal to get the inner
> part
> without getting all the very fine needles onto
> your tongue and lips and gums
>
> its hard to do
>
> but kinda worth it
>
> i had TWO friends that did not fare as well
> either
>
> because they didn't have as much horrible
> practice as i did
>
> i say horrible because when you make a "mistake"
> its not very fun
>
> and your mouth hates you for it
>
> nothing like the feeling of having spiny needles
> in your inner lips
>
> nevertheless
>
> i like them
>
> probably because
>
> they are just there for the taking
>
> and it is an ART to eat one of those things
> without getting attacked
>
> LOL


absolutely! a friend told me the secret is to use a lighter and it burns the fine needles off. Not one for carrying a lighter around, though.

david