Nopales

Last year we wrote about planting nopales – a cactus with edible pads (leaves).  We brought in three truckloads of nopales last year, dumping them in three different locations and then dispersing the pads across the forest.  For the pads that seemed dead, we just left where we had dumped them.

They were not dead.

We have six types of nopales.  Most are edible.  Some produce pricky pears (tunas in Spanish); a sweet, nutritious fruit.  In about 2 years we will be able to eat as many nopales as we can handle.

They are a great plant for our style of agriculture; no irrigation needed and they’ll last forever.  Nopales are a great addition to the diet here – a superfood containing lots of great nutrients.