Cactus Fruits to Candies
By Shavkat
@Shavkat (141906)
Philippines
February 15, 2021 4:04am CST
I did not know that prickly pear cactus' fruits can be used to sweeten the candies and edible. Honestly, I never tasted it. Based on what I read, you can consume it by just peeling off the skin and munch the meat of it. I really cannot imagine if I can do it without any feeling yucky.
Have you tried this kind of candies?
Do you have this kind of cactus?
Image Credit: images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com
Have you tried this kind of candies?
Do you have this kind of cactus?
Image Credit: images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com12 people like this
14 responses
@DaddyEvil (174326)
• United States
15 Feb 21
You need thick leather gloves and a sharp knife to eat either the fruit or the leaves (called pads) of the prickly pear cactus. It is often helpful to have red hot coals glowing nearby, too. The spines on this cactus are very sharp and barbed. If you get some in your skin, they are so tiny you can't see them to pull them out, so it is better to skin the fruit/pads or burn the spines off before handling them. (Peel the fruit, scorch the pads.)
The pads can be eaten, usually skinned and sliced then fried with any kind of meat. The pulp of the pads take on the flavor of the meat they are cooked with and are very tasty and healthy for you to eat.
If you couldn't tell, yes, I have eaten these before. They are both very good!
I've never eaten candy made with this fruit, though.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174326)
• United States
17 Feb 21
@Shavkat Well, you see, I was born into a very poor family. There were 16 kids total plus mom and dad. In order for us to have enough to eat, sometimes we gathered wild foods from the farms and forests around our house. Prickly pear cactus was one of the wild foods. (There were a great many wild foods growing around our farm.)
We kids learned how to find, identify, harvest and prepare the wild plants to be eaten.
Prickly pear cactus pads taste kind of like a bell pepper when raw. If you cook them with something else, they take on the flavor of whatever they're cooked with. (Mom usually cooked the pads with some beef so she could stretch our meat budget further.
Yes, you can peel the pad, slice it up and eat it as part of a salad.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (135664)
• Marion, Ohio
15 Feb 21
They have to be grown as houseplants here so have never tried them
2 people like this
@JWMILLER (3275)
• Westmoreland, Tennessee
16 Feb 21
No cactus here to speak of, did not know that any were sweet.
@everwonderwhy (7355)
•
15 Feb 21
We have them on our property. Very sweet. We call them prickly pears.
1 person likes this
@Laurakemunto (13787)
• Kenya
15 Feb 21
@shavkat I used to take these fruits when we were young never knowing that it had nutritional benefits!
1 person likes this
@Shavkat (141906)
• Philippines
16 Feb 21
@Laurakemunto I guess there is something that you are going to look forward to then. By the way, welcome to myLot.
1 person likes this
@Laurakemunto (13787)
• Kenya
16 Feb 21
@Shavkat yes during school days at science symposium we used to make jam from the plant its so sweet.
1 person likes this
@Laurakemunto (13787)
• Kenya
15 Feb 21
Childhood memories, you eat all sorts of wild fruits without knowing the nutritional impact! Thanks to our environment but right now they are becoming extinct due to human settlement.
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