Plants can have all sorts of uses; for ornamental value, a direct food for us or a food in the food chain, or for use to create useful material. We thought of the direct food value of plants when, at the height of the pandemic, there was talk of food shortages and we looked out over the fields at all the prickly pear cactus and decided we would not go hungry if the local supermarket went short of vegetables.
Our Hill Country crop of
prickly pear cactus (Opuntia Lindheimeri) is front and center when it
comes to food value. Named after
Ferdinand Lindheimer who documented the species, its common names are
Lindheimer prickly pear and nopal prickly pear.
It was adopted as the Texas State Plant in 1995 and House Concurrent
Resolution No. 44 describes it as “rugged, versatile, and uniquely beautiful.
The prickly pear cactus has made numerous contributions to the landscape,
cuisine and character of the Lone Star State and thus it is singularly
qualified to represent the indomitable and proud Texas spirit.”
The plant blooms April through June with flowers of yellow, orange or
red and may turn from yellow to orange as it ages. In rare cases white flowers have been noted.
The prickly pear cactus plant occurs naturally in the Americas but has
been exported to other parts of the world. In Mexico, species of Prickly Pear
cactus plant are found in large quantities in the western and central regions.
It can also be found on dry hills of the east coast from Florida to Connecticut
and surprisingly, it also occurs in isolated areas of southern Ontario.
All species of Opuntia have fleshy flat pads or paddles which look like
large leaves but they are not leaves but modified branches and stems which
serve many functions such as production of flowers, photosynthesis and water
storage. Its spines are covered with tiny pointed hairs which are known as
Glochids. All of which are found at the base of the major spines. The big
spines look formidable, but the little glochids are the more bothersome
as one touch of them puts many small spines in your skin.
This plant contains pectin, which is helpful in treating many diseases. It
also has antioxidant properties, so it
is part of a healthy diet. The edible parts of Opuntia are its newly formed
stems (the pads) the fruits, and flowers.
The new growth of stems (again, the pads) are cleaned of spines and
sliced thin in such a manner that the cut material appears like string
beans. As they are cut a noticeable
slimy substance appears and will disappear after blanching , cooking for 15
minutes and rinsing in a colander. They can then be sautéed with butter, salt,
garlic and cilantro and served just as you would any vegetable. We have tried them prepared this way in Chicharron
y Nopal a recipe like pork stew. In
case you care to try this, the spines are cleaned off the pad with a sharp
paring knife or a spoon held at a 90 degree angle and used in a scraping motion
and about ¼ “ of the pad’s edge is removed all the way around to get rid of the
remaining spines. When sliced in long strips and cut into pieces that look like
green beans, they are called nopalitos.
The fruit is useful as well, is tastier than the pads, and can be used
in a variety of ways. The wild animals
have discovered this part of the cactus and so raccoons and deer will probably
beat you to them for their dinner. The
fruit is commonly called “tuna” and forms at the base of the flower. Perhaps
the most favorite use of the tuna is to make jelly, jam or candy. The fruit is cleaned of spines, boiled to
cook the fruit to a fine pulp, strained, and after adding pectin and sugar is
bottled up in sterilized jars. There are
recipes for making these jams and jellies on the web.
The time to harvest the tunas is when the tunas are dark red as they are
in the picture above. An entrepreneurial
former teacher in Tucson, Arizona has made a business of using Sonoran Desert
plants to make some of these products and also gives lectures to the community
about the plants and their uses plus lending her support to a couple of local
charities. On
BalconyContainerGardening.com you can find a recipe for Cactus Candy. And if you don’t want to try doing it
yourself see below for Cheri’s boxed specialty.
There are many advocates for eating the prickly pear flowers in a salad,
but we prefer to look at them in the field.
Before leaving the prickly pear there was a nagging need to follow up on
how ranchers use the plant for feeding their cows during droughts. The Internet produced several interesting
posts in answer to one woman living with her family, 1 heifer, 2 dogs, 2 hogs
and 1 rather nasty chicken named Bruce on 6 acres in a near desert situation
with little forage. However she wanted
to use the available prickly pear plants, if possible.
And the answers flowed in. “Yes
they can be eaten but be sure they are hand-picked and the spines are all
cleaned off.”
“DH says that’s what ‘pear burners’ are for, propane torches to burn off
the spines.”
“We feed it to the cows and pigs after it’s been burned and now, we’ve
begun planting thornless prickly pear.”
“One time, Loretta (the cow) was impatient for us to burn and came in
with a swollen mouth full of spines. I
called my dad (old cowboy) and he said don’t worry cows have some sort of
enzyme in their body that dissolves thorns, just feed her as usual. We did and when she was finished feeding, she
had no thorns left. So I say go ahead
and burn the spines off as they will like them better, but no worries. Cactus is very healthy for them and they will
break down the fences for freshly toasted/roasted cactus.”
“Nopale water is a favorite of my cows in high summer temps. I’ll chop a few pieces and soak them until it
gets slimy (but not fermented). They
love it. If you add enough cactus you
can use half the water and refill it again making your original batch last
longer. Also, a bit of info off subject
that’s come in handy for us. Nopale
slime is a great mortar. If you mix it
into a sharp sand slurry it’ll dry harder than concrete and is water resistant.”
32-5 A cow chowing down on a toasted/roasted
cactus pad
Another interesting small cactus that exists here in BWR is the Echinocereus
Reichenbachii named after German
botanist H.L.G. Reichenbach and known familiarly as Lace Cactus here in the
Hill Country where it grows on our limestone hills.
This is a nice double one on a piece of limestone not too far from our
house. Three similar varieties range
from the Texas Panhandle to Oklahoma, S.E. Colorado and New Mexico. They bloom
in the spring and make colorful additions to the landscape. Also as our builder pointed out, they replant
easily and make nice indoor gifts planted in a small, attractive limestone rock
with a generous depression for soil.
Another cactus that’s used in landscaping and is useful as well is the Twisted
Leaf yucca. It’s the most common yucca
in the Hill Country and is identified by its long twisted leaves that radiate
out from a central point near the ground.
After being soaked, pounded and stripped the long fibers in the leaves
may be braided or twisted and used for making into ropes, baskets, mats or shoe
soles. If one is into survival skills,
there are many Internet videos showing exactly how to master this art. It was a very important plant for Ancestral
Pueblo people because of its diverse uses.
The roots contain saponin that can be used as a soap substitute or
shampoo. According to legend, shampooing
the hair with yucca makes the hair strands stronger and may prevent
baldness. There are shampoos available
for purchase these days and DIYers are happily sharing their recipes and
experiences with making it themselves.
32-7 Twisted leaf yucca
These beautiful yuccas came
with the property, but it wasn’t until we added the fence that we ever saw the
flowers. Like squash blossoms, they are
deer candy. The nicest stand we’ve seen
blooming locally is on a steep hill on the left as RR 12 descends down toward
Wimberley. Just after it is the antique
shop on the right. Many of the tall
stems can still be seen above the foliage, but of course the flowers are long gone
at this time of the year.
Continuing to stick with
spiny plants we come to the Agarita (Berberis trifoliata) another common
plant on our dry, rocky soil.
32-8 Agarita bush in September without flowers or
berries
This is a lovely bluish-gray-green
bush that can grow to 8’x 8’. It is
evergreen with compound leaves consisting of 3 leaflets with 5 sharp
points. It blooms Feb.-Apr. with
fragrant yellow flowers that are followed by red berries in June. The bush is a favorite pollen source for bees
and nesting site and haunt for birds and small mammals who eat the berries as
the thorns keep cattle and deer away.
The bright red berries also
make good jelly, but because of the thorns they are not picked like other
berries. Instead a sheet is laid on the
ground and the berry-laden limbs are beaten with a stick to save the
jelly-maker from any lacerations. Agarita
jelly Follow the link
to see how to produce the product below.
The wood of the agarita is
also useful. A bright yellow color, it
can be used to make a tan-orange dye. According
to Jan Wrede[1]
“The roots contain an alkaloid that is toxic to bacteria and protozoans and has
been used to treat toothache and stomach trouble.”
Lastly, we cannot leave the
subject of useful plants without mentioning the Mustang grape. We had lots of grapes this year, but once
again we let the time slip by when they were a beautiful green and the size was
perfect for making green-grape pie. Later
they were ripening into a nice plump purple when the heat and drought descended
along with a loss of desire on our part to hassle them out of the trees, cook
them up and make jam. They do make good
jam and next year’s crop will be here before you know it. If you want to get an idea of what the
process involves, you probably can’t do better than to take a look at retired
electrical engineer Sawdust Willy’s tutorial. Mustang
grape jelly
Another grape we’ve
purchased and planted is the Black Spanish or Lenoir variety. We only have a couple of vines at the end of
the back porch and this year (their 3rd) they made nice little
clusters. A small grape, resistant to
Pierce’s disease, they are used to make wine, juice and jelly. They have a few large seeds which only seem
to intensify the mockingbirds’ enjoyment and we have enjoyed watching the
mockingbirds consume them.
Since this has been a
newsletter about useful plants and in many cases the food to be made from them
it seems apropos to finish up with the end of the story on tatume squash. The crop was finished by the end of August,
all the squash were picked. They felt
hard to the touch, but R was sure of their viability, D was not so sure. On the day when R took the knife to one of
them, he was justified and D was happily surprised.
32-10 Tatume squash and cut "rings"
The rings were cut into
small chunks and used in a friend’s recipe for Zucchini Florentine. Sliced, cooked chicken was added and dinner
was plated with the addition of half a small baguette.
32-11
Tatume/ Chicken Florentine
We are saving tatume seeds
and if any of you would like to try growing the squash let us know and we’ll
get you some seeds.
Sightings
Also known as One-seeded
croton and Lemon spurge, this silver-gray-green weed is apparent everywhere in
the fields at this time. It is a favored
forb of the Texas bobwhites.[2]
