Pirckly pear Opuntia
Peter Piper picked a peck of prickly pears, a peck of prickly pears Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of prickly pears, how did he keep from being prickled to pieces by the glochids covering them?
In the Opuntia genus of the Cactaceae family, named for the ancient Greek city of Opus (where, according to Theophrastus, an edible grew that could be propagated by planting a leaf), are large cacti plants with flat, paddle-like stems that look like leaves, building on each other, growing into dense, tangled structures, some up to 6 to 7 feet tall. It is related to dragon fruit. “Indian figs,” O. ficus-indica, bloom in the spring with yellow, red or purple flowers, like crowns across the top edges of the pads, producing an edible pear by early fall. This is the culinary “prickly pear,” who’s edible, fleshy pads are called “napoles,” or singularly, “nopale,” from the Nahuatl word for fruit, while the fruits are called “tuna.” The fruits can be red, yellow-orange, wine red or green.
The pads are modified branches or stems doing multi functions – storing water, photosynthesis and flower production. They have large sharp spines (considered modified leaves) with fine, tiny, hooked barbed spines called glochids just above them that easily detach and git’cha. They are difficult to see and remove from your skin. This makes the fruit difficult to pick with bare hands, so, use heavy or leather gloves.
Found throughout the U.S., Opuntias are the most cold tolerant of lowland cacti, needing course and well drained soil in semi-arid areas. Prickly pear has a deep history of being domesticated, and is the best known and loved cactus in the world today. It has been a staple food of Native Americans for centuries, while Mexicans and South Americans use it for medicinal purposes and an alcoholic drink called colonche. After Columbus, ships carried edible pads to help prevent scurvy. In Mexico it is cultivated to serve as a host plant for the cochineal beetle from whose crushed body the carmine dye is obtained. Its demand has decreased with the birth of artificial dyes. This beetle is still used for controlling the invasiveness of Opuntias, known to be invasive in China, Taiwan, Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Reunion, Somalia, Galapagos Islands and Australia. It is not considered widely invasive in North America.
Captain Arthur Philip and the early colonists of Australia in 1788 are credited with intentionally introducing prickly pear there. It is now considered a weed. Biological control was effectively introduced in the 1920s and 1930s, which included the cactoblastis moths and cochineal beetles.
Popular among the foraging groups, they know to use thick, heavy gloves for harvesting the pads and fruits. Long handled tongs help, too. The fruit is picked early in the morning while the glochids or spines are still soft from the dew.
My favorite foraging guru, Green Deane, suggests spraying the fruit with water to reduce the number of spines, then washing them, or he burns the spines with a lighter or candle flame, like his treatment of sand-burs, which he eats. Green Dean has a blog titled eattheweeds – google it – but Opuntias are listed under his eattheinvaders list.
The fleshy pads, or nopales, can also be eaten raw or cooked. Be sure to wear heavy gloves, trim off the leaf edges, removing the bumps and thorns with a knife or peelers; one blogger used tweezers. Rinse in cold water to remove the spines and wash off the sticky fluid. If you’re not using them right away, wrap in cellophane and refrigerate for up to two days.
Care must be taken in eating them. Avoid them if they have been sprayed with an herbicide or grown alongside roads consuming the toxic emissions from cars.
I found a recipe for a Prickly Pear Margarita by Emril Lagasse, plus jams, jellies, marmalades and juices/drinks. Prickly pears are becoming as big a crop in Mexico as the blue agaves that provide tequila.
My interest in prickly pear was brought about by a Master Gardener notice concerning an article by Krista Langlois, “A Prickly Proposition.” It details the crisis in California’s San Joaquin Valley where 90 percent of our tomatoes and 99 percent of our raisins (and grapes) are raised. The swiftly deteriorating soil conditions there involve being an ancient seabed high in salt, selenium and boron, now going dry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture asked a young soil scientist for help, Gary Banuelos, whose work is on phytoremediation – using plants to improve contaminated soil. After several attempts, he and a student working for him tried Opuntia ficus-Indica, in 2005. This cactus requires little water, thrives in toxic conditions and even improves soil by pulling selenium up through its roots and releasing it as a harmless gas a volatilization process. Successful experimentation with varieties tolerant to salt and boron followed.
The fact that it produced a tasty fruit that chefs around the world craved blessed the trials. The cactus pads are $150 million a year crop in Mexico, and the fruits are highly valued by the Italian chefs, but Americans haven’t yet cultivated the prickly pear taste. The grower/farmer helping them is growing prickly pears for juices and nutritional supplements. Food activist Adam Brock devoted his entire TED talk to cactus, a “bioregional cuisine” and Modern Farmer recently published an article touting it as the next kale – a new trend for Whole Foodies.
I see prickly pear pads (nopales) and fruits available seasonally in the grocery stores for immigrants seeking familiar foods. Since I only do foraging with a knowledgeable person, I bet I could forage successfully by myself at the grocery store when they are in season. I tried the farmers market this week, but found none.
Find a tree, relax near it, sip a prickly pear drink and thank that tree for your fresh air.
Joyce Comingore is a Master Gardener, hibiscus enthusiast and member of the Garden Club of Cape Coral.