Prickly pear, cactus, yucca

BindiAndScrubbie wrote:

Vicious (sorry your name isn't in your signature)
I would love to see pics of this. Actually would love to see your cactus because my neighbor has a cactus plants. Look like prickly pear but I can't tell. She doesn't know either, it was there before she bought her house.
What kind do you have? Are the flowers yellow?

Prickly pears are non-toxic when consuming the flowers, the fruits, and even skinned pads. They really are awesome plants and there is a ton of different kinds and all of them have edible parts. The flowers I used were yellow but there were pink ones on the same plant and I have a neighbor who has maroon flowers, and another who has orange. They are all fine to eat and all of the plants still make the same delicious prickly pear jelly! :P

I really do need to get pictures, I still have not and since then I have fed roses too. Flowers are a huge success here, they never go untouched. I still do want to get pictures so everyone please bear with me.

Mine love prickly pear but I'd love to snatch them off my neighbor's plant instead of paying for them if I can. LOL So if you can get a picture of your plant, that'd be awesome. I can see if it's the same one as here. I might possibly have a goldmine within 20 feet of me.

so my store had a purple prickly pear, and i was so very excited because my kids have never had the purple one before, my store only has green prickly pear. so i feed it and no one ate it. i was so very sad. it seems my kids only like the green ones. are anyone elses only fans of a certain color?

I can't say that about my gliders, but I CAN tell you that I seem to have an allergy to prickly pear. :( Much like Davie's poison lemon branches, I discovered this allergy while trying to do something nice and fun for my gliders.

Oh man, here we go again....for the record....my lemon branches are not poisoned. Val is just a sensitive baby. She's allergic to air.

Oh and I am the oppsite, I can only find the purple/red ones here, (they love them) never the green ones. (which is why I'm trying to decipher what species this cactus is at my neighbors.)

BindiAndScrubbie wrote:

Oh man, here we go again....for the record....my lemon branches are not poisoned. Val is just a sensitive baby. She's allergic to air.

I'm starting to think that I might really be!

I don't find the green ones often here - it is mostly the purple ones. But, on occasion I can find both. Dragon fruit on occasion as well.

I never thought about feeding prickly pears! There's LOTS I never thought about trying! One question...if I feed watermelon, do I have to remove all the seeds? We grow mini watermelons (Sugar Babies) and I thought about giving them each a partially scooped out half with their food in it tonight. It seems to me that animals that naturally eat fruit with seeds know how to eat around the seeds, but maybe I'm wrong?

No, you do not have to remove the seeds.

The kids had a BALL with the watermelon! It was a riot watching them try to hang on to the seeds!
I have a friend who is farming his grandparents farm - growing organic flowers. He told me to give him a list of flowers I'd like him to grow next year, then I can dry them for the winter. What flowers would folks suggest?

i have seen the prickly pear produce flowers in a wide variety of colors, from yellow, to orange red purple, and even pinkish ones.

Hmmm. I'm going to take a picture of my neighbor's and post it here. I'm not sure if it's the same but then again, maybe it is? It's really hard to tell. I need a general consensus. You know...because we are all educated cactus geniuses.

They had prickly pear in the grocery store the other day. I was afraid of it lol. It was red kind of looked like the picture above.

Ok how do you feed Yucca?

BCChins wrote:

They had prickly pear in the grocery store the other day. I was afraid of it lol. It was red kind of looked like the picture above.

Ok how do you feed Yucca?

Prickly Pear will stain your hands & anything else it touches. lol The tiny thorns hurt if one gets inbedded in your hands. You didn't miss out on too much fun passing it up.

I feed yucca as a dried powder. It grows like weeds around here, but it is difficult to process and I'm not all that interested in doing so, LOL. So, I purchase the dried powder:
http://nutriteck.com/yuccadry.html

I don't use it often, but from the research it looks like *I* should be using it daily.

I know that there are many in the UK who use it frequently in their diets.

This thing was a root? Maybe it was not Yucca?
This is why I do not play with the unknown. I could be feeding something bad for all I know.

Hint- cut a hole in it and the suggies will clean it for you. I've started to refuse cutting anything up for them and they actually like working for their food!

Yucca is a root, Brenda. ;)

Editing to add that my neighbor has those next door too. The leaves constantly poke our eyeballs, they jet out of the plant like soft lil knives. Wonder if she'll notice me digging them up and out? LOL

So, I actually bought some prickly pear, the pear, this week, but am not sure how to serve it. Just chop it up?

The red one? I wear gloves and peel the entire outside with a pearing knife. (It'll stain and there are needley thorns.) Then just chop it up.

I've never worn gloves when cutting mine, but I also work as a cook, so I don't have alot of feeling in my fingers. I've never noticed any thorns in my prickly pear, the stores here do a great job removing them before selling

What a kind store. LOL Our local fresh market just leaves em on there. They hurt too. They're like tiny splinters that are hard to get out.

And I totally know what you mean. The tips of my left fingers are semi numb from playing acoustic guitar. I don't play much anymore but they still have the same amount of semi numbness in them. I can touch a hot pan with them and not feel much. The fingers on my right hand would feel the heat instantly.

thats why i love my H.E.B., well not really but yes they are quit nice.


TEACH ME to play guitar :-) i've always wanted to learn but i was to busy being a boy playing sports