Ode to the Prickly Pear

We live in SoCal, inland close to the Mexican boarder. Our grow zone has in resent years been changed from a 9b to a 10b. In other words, it hotter than h… here, and we love it. When we moved into our little 1/2 acre homestead, it was all lawn and stones. Nothing grew there, with the grass barely hanging on, so to the water shortage.
We spend the first year, removing the lawns and stones, and spreading out mulch and more mulch. It took time and work, but little by little we got the soil turned around and ready for planting.
While the back has been dedicated to vegetables and animals, we wanted an orchard in the front, and we wanted to add native plants as well. As we worked, we also saw insects, birds, critters and predators return. One of my favorite native plants is the Prickly pear. I can’t say enough times, why everyone should have one in their garden. This is an ode to The Prickly Pear, to show why I love this plant so much.

Growing Prickly pears: Growing prickly pears are very easy, even in our hot and dry climate. As a native desert plant, it loves the sun and is very heat and fire tolerant. If you want to be sure no plants can catch fire around your house, the prickly pear is you buddy. It is in fact so fire resistant that we can torch it before harvest, and it doesn’t hard the plant. So in fire prone California, this is a good friend to have. To grow them, just take a paddle, and put it in a pot with a little water. It won’t be long before I sets roots, and once it has started growing a new paddle, it’s time to transplant it. We planted our in the late fall, so it could take advantage of the rain season. After that, just stand by and see it grow. It took 4 years before our started to bloom, but that year we had hundreds of flowers, followed by hundreds of tunas, and we still don’t do any maintenance. The plant just take care of itself.

Environmental advantages: not only does the plant protect from fires and lower the temperature in our garden, it also creates a home for helpful animals like snakes. Since snakes is a gardeners friend, we love that they have a new place to stay, it has done wonders for the rat, gopher  and mice population.

Nutrition: Both the paddles and the fruit are edible and very nutritious. They are also both delicious.

According to the USDA, 100 grams/3.5 ounces of prickly pear cactus contains about:

40 calories
10 grams carbohydrates
3.5 grams fiber
less than 1 gram of fat or protein
85 milligrams magnesium (24 percent DV)
14 milligrams vitamin C  (17 percent DV)
0.1 milligram riboflavin/vitamin B2(8 percent DV)
0.1 milligram vitamin B6 (8 percent DV)
56 milligram calcium (6 percent DV)
220 milligrams potassium (5 percent DV)

Medicinal use: on top of being very nutritious it’s also good for your health. It’s rich in antioxidants, is an anti inflammatory, and it’s rich in minerals and fatty acids. Preliminary studies show that it can be used to treat diabetes II, and it contains antibacterial and antiviral properties. Raw,  it can also be used to treat burns, just like Aloe Vera.

So here you have it. My prickly friend the Prickly Pear Cactus.

I have never seen so many fruit as that photo has.

I'm looking forward to your next ode!

Very cool, I was aware of them, but I've never had the opportunity to try them in any form. I wonder if I could grow them here...

John C Daley wrote:I have never seen so many fruit as that photo has.

The picture is my prickly pear, as of yesterday. It’s like this every year. It loves the sun, the soil is hard, but well drained and sandy. We also have plenty of pollinators. As I wrote, we don’t do any maintenance at all, add no fertilizer or water. It just loves being left alone.

L. Johnson wrote:I'm looking forward to your next ode!

Very cool, I was aware of them, but I've never had the opportunity to try them in any form. I wonder if I could grow them here...

Not if it’s a wet climate. We live on the edge of the desert, and have a desert climate. Temperatures goes to 118F each summer with a humidity between 10 and 20. Part of our project, of food production has been to lower the temperature by planting trees and bushes. In the beginning the ground would be so hot, that our dog burned his paws going outside to pee. It’s much better now, but we are still working on improvements. Our biggest discussion right now, is if we should add more shade to the vegetable garden. I want to, since I hate seeing so many plants burned, but on the other hand, Peter is right, that we should try and find a different solution first.
We cover all of our beds with straw or similar, to lower the temperatures. We did see this year, that letting purslane spread in my rhubarb bed, was a good idea. Those two work well together. It’s an ongoing project growing food in the desert.