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Cacti thread

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LivingParadise:
People may not think of cactus as a tropical plant exactly, but it frequently grows in tropical areas. And what many don't realize is that you can eat both the pads, and any fruit that grow. The Florida Keys actually have 3 native species of cacti. I bought a few others to add to my collection. I don't really care for the look of cactus personally, but they are certainly drought tolerant, interesting looking, and a good choice for survival needs.

So for the moment here are the species I have that I know to be edible:

*Opuntia Cochenillifera, Slim Jim Cactus - slim, mostly spineless pads, with abundant red flowers
*Consolea Moniliformis (a.k.a. opuntia ferox), Hawaiian Lights  - thicker pads, frequent bloomer, yellow and orange/red flowers, flowers from a small size
*Opuntia Splendens, Giant Wavy Blue - large relatively thornless bluish pads, large yellow flowers
*Opuntia humifusa - native Florida prickly pear
*Acanthocereus tetragonus, Barbed wire cactus - native Florida species
*Consolea corallicola, Semaphore cactus - native Keys species
*Opuntia triacanthos, Keys Jumping cactus - native Keys species
*2 thus far unidentified Opuntias just labeled as "prickly pear"

If the unnamed Opuntias don't turn out to include them, I will probably add Opuntia ficus-indica (indian fig) and Nopalea Karwinskiana.

Generally speaking, Opuntias are considered to be edible, and here is a huge list of them with some common and alternate scientific names: http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Cactaceae/Opuntia.html
Not all of them though are going to be tolerant of the humid conditions of the tropics, and of the excessive rain we get, particularly in a rainy season. So be mindful of whatever your local conditions are if you're looking to bring outside species in.

I want to see what does, and does not, do well in my local conditions. And also what does, and does not, taste good. I haven't eaten much in the way of cacti pads, or fruit. Maybe 10 years ago was the last time I tried any, and that was pickled pads, which I remember as being slimy and edible but not great, and prickly pear fruit being again edible but not as sweet or tasty as I was hoping for.

The problem with any of these is glochids, the tiny nearly-invisible hairs that latch onto skin and are quite painful - more of a concern to me than cacti spines which are easily seen and thus fairly easily avoided. So handling and preparation are to be thought about. Generally speaking, you need to peel them - maybe with gloves. I think they need to be cooked - I'm not sure if you can eat any pads in a raw state. From what I understand, usually you want to eat pads when they are young and don't have many spines on them yet.

I hope you'll share your recipes and methods of preparation here. As a vegetable, the pads apparently can be thrown on the grill, and I've heard of people eating them in place of burgers. Never tried it yet, but I'd like to.

Opuntia are noted for multiple strong health benefits, both from the fruit, and the pads. So aside from being easy in drought-prone areas, it certainly has other things to recommend it.

My plants are all still very young, but I will say that the Hawaiian Lights already had its first flowers, which was exciting. Would be cool if it made fruit. All of my plants are still too young for me to want to cut off pads to try them as a vegetable yet. But it's a nice dry season option for harvest, when all the fruits and many of the vegetables are still waiting for their rainy season prime.

Of course, keep in mind that dragonfruit and pitaya are great to grow too, although I'm unsure about their edibility as a vegetable.


Please share what edible cacti you have growing, and your experiences so far with them as a vegetable!

ericalynne:
I have a variety of pad cacti on my property in south/central Florida. It grows wild in the pastures. I have tried preparing them myself and haven't been impressed, but here are my experiences:

1. There are utensils for holding the pads and removing glochids and spines. Look in a hispanic grocery store. Inexpensive.
2. You can also char the outside of the pad, holding the pads one at a time with tongs and holding over a fire such as a grill or even over a gas or propane flame.
3. When I get prepared and chopped nopales from friends who grew up on these, they are good, not slimy, not highly flavorful, but nice in stir fries. I had a friend whose favorite meal as nopales and shrimp stir fried with mexican seasonings.

Erica

LivingParadise:

--- Quote from: ericalynne on April 11, 2017, 06:26:49 AM ---I have a variety of pad cacti on my property in south/central Florida. It grows wild in the pastures. I have tried preparing them myself and haven't been impressed, but here are my experiences:

1. There are utensils for holding the pads and removing glochids and spines. Look in a hispanic grocery store. Inexpensive.
2. You can also char the outside of the pad, holding the pads one at a time with tongs and holding over a fire such as a grill or even over a gas or propane flame.
3. When I get prepared and chopped nopales from friends who grew up on these, they are good, not slimy, not highly flavorful, but nice in stir fries. I had a friend whose favorite meal as nopales and shrimp stir fried with mexican seasonings.

Erica

--- End quote ---

Great tips - thanks!

BajaJohn:
Can't I'm much of an expert on them but prickly pear/opuntia/nopal seems to be quite a large family of cactus. Many grow wild around here but edibility varies. I think usually "prickly pear" refers to the ones that provide the edible fruits but may not have palatable "pads". There are several different varieties and colors that you can even buy in bags, pealed and prepared to eat right out of the bag. Nopal is used for the ones with edible pads which may not have good fruit.
Nopales are abundant in grocery stores here and our journeys sometimes take us past sizeable fields of cultivated nopal. The stores bulk buy the nopal pads and have someone use a sharp knife to shave off the glochid-loaded areoles. You can dice them, blanch them and use them in salads, use them as a vegetable, juice them or grill them in the barbecue. They taste a little bland to me but the barbecue really seems to bring out a delicious flavour although it also turns the juice into a clear slimy goo that doesn't look too appetizing. Just oil and salt them then sear. The best nopal for eating seem to be the younger, thinner pads and cultivating the store bought pads (grabbed before the areoles were removed) produces plants with thinner pads than other varieties. The few types of nopal I have tried grow really fast if they are watered. A single rootless pad poked in the ground will multiply to 10 pads within a year in my sunny, hot climate with winters that rival summers in more northern climes.
I've never tried dragon fruit (hylocereus) but there are several varieties and colors (https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Edible-Hylocereus-Undatus-Fragrant/dp/B00TQDJVH0). Pitayas (stenocereus) grow wild here too. The ones I've tasted were quite juicy with a texture and flavor like cucumber. They weren't overly sweet and also had a hint of lemon. They contain a lot of rock-hard seeds. I always felt the name was inspired by the sound of spitting out the pits. Native Indians dried these pits and ground them into a flour. There are different wild varieties. One sweet one (pitaya dulce) is s. thurberi, commonly known as the organ pipe cactus. The fruit is red. A sour edible one (pitaya agria) is s. gummosus. I haven't tried it but it was a staple to natives in the region and is said to taste quite pleasant.
Pachycereus, such as the giant cardon (p. Pringles) also have edible "pitayas" which are reputed to be sour and perhaps more of a "survival" food although the pits were used to make flour.

BajaJohn:
In addition to their potential for food, many of the same cactus (e.g., opuntia, pachycereus) improve soil with poorly understood nitrogen fixing mechanisms and mechanisms to break down rock particles. Google "nitrogen fixing cactus" for a wealth of information. Not sure how long it would take to. Convert your rocks into soil but here is one article http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8209000/8209687.stm. There are others that suggest an enhanced effect with a mix of cactus and trees. Mesquite is one tree mentioned but I believe Mesquite is considered a problematic invasive species in many parts of the world so be careful with it. Mesquite is also leguminous. It is native to arid climates so not sure how it would fare in Florida.

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