Prickly pear fruit

I found a great reason for keeping that Prickly Pear Cactus around. (Not that I was going to get rid of it, but it is always nice to have found new resources)

The flower of the Prickly Pear turns into a great fruit. I had forgotten that when we were in Tucson on many different trips out to see our daughter who lived out there for several years, we got to experience Prickly Pear fruit first hand. A nice candy is made from it. I just found myself enjoying the fruit as it is.

As I received this great cactus late in the season I did not have the opportunity to get a photo of it in bloom. It has a nice yellow flower which turns into a reddish/green pod which contains a tasty fruit.



As you can see from this photo of one in my hand, they are a nice size.





I harvested several of these fruits and shared them with Gretchen. We both proceeded to taste them, biting the end off first. That was a mistake!! We found out that they had pricklies which got onto our lips!! They were easy to get rid of and we were both pleased by the nice pleasant taste we discovered.




For the next ones, we cut off the ends first.




I enjoyed eating the skin, but the real treat is the pulp. There were several seeds in each pod, which I dried and then planted around the mother plant.



Another edible discovered right in the gardens!!