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14
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2013
rickly pear cactus loves the Big
Bend – Golden Spined prickly pear,
Texas prickly pear, Englemann
prickly pear, Cow’s Tongue prickly pear,
Purple prickly pear, Plains prickly pear,
Purple Fruit prickly pear, Spiny Fruit
prickly pear, Blind prickly pear – so many
prickly pears in the Big Bend of Far West
Texas.
Prickly pear is easy to propagate. They
drop their pads on our gravelly, clayey soil
and root. To propagate these for yourself, all
you need to do is pick up a pad, with leather
gloves or tongs. Then let it sit out of dirt and
callus over for three to five days. Lastly, put
it right into the ground. You don’t even have
to water it; actually it’s better if you don’t for
at least a week. In about three weeks, it will
root and start its own family.
Prickly pear has many practical uses. It
has been used from time immemorial for
medicinal purposes. When the pads are cut
open they are a soothing poultice for
wounds, burns and bruises. They are being
researched for medicine for diabetes as well.
The Navajos dyed their wool in the
uncooked juices of the prickly pear fruit for
about a week. It would produce a magenta
pink color that would fade somewhat in the
sun. Nowadays, you can presoak the wool in
soda ash or alum to make the color fast.
Prickly pear has also been valued as a
windbreak and soil stabilizer.
Many feel that the prickly pear is a weed
and must be eradicated. However, it is the
weeds that stabilize the soil until the land can
repair itself after periods of abuse. Land is
not meant to be monocropped. The land
will always introduce weeds within the
monocrop to stabilize a landscape, in order
for it to be productive and supply needed
life-sustaining nutrients for wildlife.
If you wonder why the prickly pear
seems so prevalent, it’s because much of the
land has been degraded. The prickly pear
offers itself as a quick propagator, soil stabi-
lizer, food for humans and livestock, dyes
and fruit, beautiful flowers and as a wind-
break that allows other plants to grow
around it.
So instead of trying to remove it from the
landscape, perhaps it’s time we saw the
humble prickly pear’s important attributes.
There are many delicious ways you can
prepare prickly pear. Try these:
Fried Nopalitos
1 cup nopalitios (prickly pear pads, small, with
the thorns taken off with a sharp knife)
1/3 cup wheat flour
2/3 cup cornmeal
1 tsp chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil
Place flour, cornmeal and seasonings in a plastic
bag, shake bag to mix. Drop in nopalitos, and shake
until well coated. Heat oil in a skillet and fry until
golden brown… Serve with eggs for a yummy
Southwestern breakfast.
In the summer, the blooms will produce
red to purple fruits (tunas) on the pads. It’s
time to make prickly pear jelly!
Prickly Pear Jelly
15-30 tunas - skin and take thorns off with
stones or a knife. Make sure you don’t pick these with
bare hands or you’ll get a handful of thorns. Make
sure you only pick ripe fruits.
Lemon or lime juice
Powdered pectin
Sugar to taste, about a cup and half
Remove spines. Mash the fruits, and follow the
directions on the pectin box.