Guest guest Posted September 19, 2006 Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 In a message dated 9/19/2006 6:13:05 PM Central Daylight Time, WAPFbaby@... writes: > Hello, > > Has anyone done any ferments with prickly pear fruit from cactus? I > have an organic plant in the front garden, and the fruit is getting > heavy and purple. I could make jam, but I try to keep sweeteners to a > minimum. I don't know if they must be cooked first either, but from a > quick search, apparently either fresh or cooked is fine. Perhaps > cooking mellows it? I could eat the pads too, I know, but it's the > ripening fruit I am most interested in now. Maybe some cactus kefir > beer or something? How about a relish for Thanksgiving with prickly > pear instead of cranberry? > > Any suggestions are most appreciated. > > TIA, > Deanna > Deanna, Yes, I have some prickly pear pads julieanned with some cabbage sauerkraut. It tastes OK but it has the slimeiness of boiled okra. I made this cactus kimchi with diabetes in mind. I am not diabetic, but perhaps my pancreas could use a supplement now and then? I have not used the cactus apples in ferments as of yet. I have cooked them down with sugar and sure gel and made perserves out of them. They are best when a touch green yet, after they turn red they taste good but have lots of seeds with not much meat left. Many Mexicans use the pads (one a day, taken in the morning and raw) rather than insulin shots for diabetes. I'd like to see more information on this. Thanks for bringing this up. C R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 19, 2006 Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 Deanna wrote: OK, well I'm just JEALOUS, darn it. I love prickly pear! They are expensive though. I haven't tried fermenting them, but isn't a cactus used for making Tequila? The prickly pears seem like they'd make a fine beer or wine. You'd want them to settle out, or filter them, or something though: fermenting whole fruit is more work. What we do with extra fruit around here is: 1. Freeze it (breaks the cell walls without cooking it). 2. Unfreeze it. 3. Put it in a juicer bag (for making jelly), hang it from a cabinet, and squeeze the juice out of it. 4. Freeze the juice in ice cube trays. 5. Feed the rest to the chooks. Once you have the pure juice, making wine/beer is easier (tho the skin and seeds do add their own flavor: it's a tradeoff!). Also takes less room in the freezer. You can use the juice for anything: smoothies, syrups, jams, or just mix with fizz water to make pop. Or mix with coconut milk and tapioca to make bubble tea. -- Heidi -- Heidi > Hello, > > Has anyone done any ferments with prickly pear fruit from cactus? I > have an organic plant in the front garden, and the fruit is getting > heavy and purple. I could make jam, but I try to keep sweeteners to a > minimum. I don't know if they must be cooked first either, but from a > quick search, apparently either fresh or cooked is fine. Perhaps > cooking mellows it? I could eat the pads too, I know, but it's the > ripening fruit I am most interested in now. Maybe some cactus kefir > beer or something? How about a relish for Thanksgiving with prickly > pear instead of cranberry? > > Any suggestions are most appreciated. > > TIA, > Deanna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 19, 2006 Report Share Posted September 19, 2006 >> Many Mexicans use the pads (one a day, taken in the morning and raw) rather than insulin shots for diabetes. I'd like to see more information on this. Thanks for bringing this up. C R I can't say for cactus, and I'm not diabetic, but I do track my blood sugar, and neem leaves help a lot too. Neem will grow nicely in a warm climate ... it grows nicely here, indoors. www.neemtreefarms.com has the small trees, and you can buy the raw leaves in bulk too. They freeze well, then you make tea out of them. Until your tree gets big enough to harvest them ... -- Heidi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 2006 Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 > Has anyone done any ferments with prickly pear fruit from cactus? ~Deanna No, Deanna, I have not (as yet). But Charlie Papazian in his THE COMPLETE JOY OF HOME BREWING has a recipe for a prickly pear mead that he claims is simply extraordinary ( " . . .the most seductively delicious mead I have ever had--*ever* " )--he makes some every year. (I have the 3rd edition--the recipe is on pp 341-42.) Papazian makes it sound like this mead is something you owe to yourself if you have access to prickly pear. I plan to try it, but am only getting back into brewing, so probably won't be able to this year. ~Harvey -- Harvey in northern Va www.themodernhomestead.us " How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used. " ~Wendell Berry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 2006 Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 Prickly pear pads, otherwise known as nopales, can be sliced up like French cut green beans and made into frittata - really good. Berkeley Bowl sells both the pads (de-spined) and bags of the de-spined and cut up veggie. I tend to think of the ripe fruit like I do pomegranates - just seedy. Connie _____ From: nutrition [mailto:nutrition ] On Behalf Of craicker@... Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9:01 PM nutrition Subject: Re: prickly pear ferments In a message dated 9/19/2006 6:13:05 PM Central Daylight Time, WAPFbabysalvonix (DOT) <mailto:WAPFbaby%40salvonix.com> com writes: > Hello, > > Has anyone done any ferments with prickly pear fruit from cactus? I > have an organic plant in the front garden, and the fruit is getting > heavy and purple. I could make jam, but I try to keep sweeteners to a > minimum. I don't know if they must be cooked first either, but from a > quick search, apparently either fresh or cooked is fine. Perhaps > cooking mellows it? I could eat the pads too, I know, but it's the > ripening fruit I am most interested in now. Maybe some cactus kefir > beer or something? How about a relish for Thanksgiving with prickly > pear instead of cranberry? > > Any suggestions are most appreciated. > > TIA, > Deanna > Deanna, Yes, I have some prickly pear pads julieanned with some cabbage sauerkraut. It tastes OK but it has the slimeiness of boiled okra. I made this cactus kimchi with diabetes in mind. I am not diabetic, but perhaps my pancreas could use a supplement now and then? I have not used the cactus apples in ferments as of yet. I have cooked them down with sugar and sure gel and made perserves out of them. They are best when a touch green yet, after they turn red they taste good but have lots of seeds with not much meat left. Many Mexicans use the pads (one a day, taken in the morning and raw) rather than insulin shots for diabetes. I'd like to see more information on this. Thanks for bringing this up. C R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 20, 2006 Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 I've had a lot of fun and some rather unpleasant-tasting results with my big bed of thornless cactus. I have also experimented with canned nopalitos (it is in the Mexican part of your local grocery, at least in Texas), which is of course easier. I found that whether or not I was using ripened pears (which are only available seasonally) or the pads, the best of my efforts were to blanche them whole, then slice and place in blender (I use the old VitaMix) with either kefirized fruit juice or kombucha tea. I add a mix of stevia and molasses to sweeten, a huge dash of cinnamon and tumeric, let it sit on the counter 12 hours or so, depending entirely on the season of the year (temperature-wise). Keep tasting through a straw to see when you like it, as it can turn " off " taste-wise very quickly. The pads have a consistancy that many would not like, very slimy. But I am used to lots of kefiran in my milk kefir, and we eat lots of slimy okra here, so don't mind this. The pears always come up with a lovely color, and I really like them better, but I bet the pads are better for you! By the way, on the portions that I experimented with by adding kefir grains, they fermented a little strongly for me, and I did not dare use these grains subsequently, so just added them to my next smoothie. These treasures are never wasted at my house! Just be willing to experiment, and you will come up with something unusual and tasty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 > 1. Freeze it (breaks the cell walls without cooking it). > 2. Unfreeze it. > 3. Put it in a juicer bag (for making jelly), hang it from > a cabinet, and squeeze the juice out of it. > 4. Freeze the juice in ice cube trays. > 5. Feed the rest to the chooks. Great suggestions Heidi! And freezing gives me time to get off my intentions about it <g>. > > Once you have the pure juice, making wine/beer is > easier (tho the skin and seeds do add their own flavor: > it's a tradeoff!). Also takes less room in the freezer. > You can use the juice for anything: smoothies, > syrups, jams, or just mix with fizz water to make pop. > Or mix with coconut milk and tapioca to make bubble tea. Bubble tea? Thanks for breaking it all done for me - it seems much more doable now! Deanna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 > They are best when a touch green yet, after they turn red they > taste good but have lots of seeds with not much meat left. Many > Mexicans use > the pads (one a day, taken in the morning and raw) rather than insulin > shots > for diabetes. I'd like to see more information on this. Thanks for > bringing this > up. Huh, learn something new every day. I am not diabetic, but I have had cactus in salsa before. Perhaps pads could be pickled alone and rinsed of their slime later on? Well, most of the pears were all purple - but just recently. I did pick some with green, and I will certainly keep that in mind. I can just plant some of the seeds (and eat some too). Cacti can also grow from the pads that fall off during storms. They just start growing. That fascinated me when I first noticed it. Observing nature is the best education. Here's a bit more I found on them: http://www.rain.org/greennet/docs/exoticveggies/html/pricklypear.htm -------------------------------------- Culinary Uses . Whether you add sliced or cubed pads to omelettes or gently urge the fruit from its stickery skin and eat it fresh or cooked into jelly, this cactus has much to offer. Even the seeds can be eaten in soups or dried and ground into flour. Recipes and entertaining and informative tips on preparation can be found in Joyce L. Tate’s Cactus Cookbook, available from the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. Recipes range from appetizers, soups, and salads through entrees, vegetable dishes, and breads to desserts, beverages, and candies. In Central Mexico, the pads have been grown as a traditional vegetable since before the Spanish arrived. They taste something like green beans. Today, the pads are available in this country throughout the year in specialty produce sections and at farmers’ markets. The smaller young pads in the early spring are the most succulent, delicate in flavor, and have the fewest spines. Fresh pads are full of water and should be bright green and firm. To prepare the pad, simply hold its base and scrape the skin on both sides with a blunt knife until all the spines are removed. Then peel the pads and cut them into shoestring strips or dice them according to the needs of the recipe. They can be eaten raw in salads, boiled and fried like eggplant, pickled with spices, or cooked with shellfish, pork, chilies, tomatoes, eggs, coriander, garlic, and onions. The flavor of a ripe prickly pear cactus fruit depends on the variety but include strawberries, watermelons, honeydew melons, figs, bananas, and citrus. You can eat them raw, at room temperature or chilled, and alone or with lemon juice. They can be cooked into jams and preserves or cooked down into a syrup as a base for jelly and candy — the “cactus candy” in some Mexican food stores. This syrup can be reduced even further into a dark red or black paste that is fermented into a potent alcoholic drink called “coloncha.” The fruit pulp can be dried and ground into flour for baking into small sweet cakes, or stored for future use. ------------------------------- Deanna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 23, 2006 Report Share Posted September 23, 2006 Hi Heidi, Thanks for this great site, so I can order tea a tree. I had some others also, but this one gave another link to help me hopefully with my skin troubles. God Bless You.http://www.morgellons.org/casedef.html Audrey <snippet> > I can't say for cactus, and I'm not diabetic, but I do > track my blood sugar, and neem leaves help a lot > too. Neem will grow nicely in a warm climate ... it > grows nicely here, indoors. www.neemtreefarms.com has > the small trees, and you can buy the raw leaves in bulk too. > They freeze well, then you make tea out of them. Until > your tree gets big enough to harvest them ... > > -- Heidi > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 23, 2006 Report Share Posted September 23, 2006 Audrey wrote: > > Hi Heidi, > Thanks for this great site, so I can order tea a tree. I had some > others also, but this one gave another link to help me hopefully with > my skin troubles. God Bless You.http://www.morgellons.org/casedef.html > Audrey I think the link was for neem trees? I like tea tree oil too, but I didn't know you could get them there. (I think we are talking about www.neemtreefarms.com?). I did try their skin ointment: it works amazingly well: you have to keep it in the fridge though. Also their " dry pet shampoo " ... which is amazing. The wet spray is too. Either one deodorizes dogs nicely and are easy to use, and seem to get rid of itching problems. Dogs just don't like baths, and my kids don't like to bathe them: so this is really nice to have. My dd tried the dry shampoo on a muddy paw, and was amazed that all the dirt came off and the paw was all nice and shiny. If the dog ingests the neem bark, it kills parasites, so that's a plus too. Neem bark seems amazingly antibacterial: it keeps my mouth " clean " for like 2 days after I use it. My own skin problems are mainly from gluten: esp. beer, for some reason (barley malt), which is why I make my own beer! The " crawling sensations " they mention in Morgellen's syndrome are pretty much what I get ... it feels like little bugs crawling on your skin but you can't see them. I always assumed they were baby flea larva and it was from the cat, and everyone else thought it was really weird that the fleas would only bite ME. I got these little teeny blisters too, that itched like mad, which I figured were flea bites. -- Heidi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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