I bought this prickly pear with only 2 pads on it about 4 years ago. Now I have to plant pads everywhere as the thing has grown out of control. I line my property with new little cacti, kind of a natural fence. I really should peel and eat this stuff. Anyone peel and eat it raw?
I just ate some peeled fruit. Not sweet and not bad!
When I was in Morocco, they had a lot of the cactus fruit in the market during the summer. The plants looked about the same. They picked it before it turned red as it was over ripe at that point. They would wash/scrub off the spines, then cut them open and eat the insides, throwing away the skins. It was a quite edible cheap fruit.
Here in Florida they have a cactus that is pretty much spineless. The pads/leaves are eaten pickled or even cut up in salads. It has a rather tart taste for a vegetable. The Spanish speakers call it Tuna.
TruthHunter
