Preparing Cactus Fruits

[MovieActor]

Cactus fruit make great tort treats. Luckily, they grow wild in my area, so I get them for free! Here is a quick guide to preparing them:



1. Cut lengthwise
2 Remove the seeds (grow more cacti!)
3. Dice

My leopard LOVES them!
Her name is Harriet




* I highly recommend wearing gloves- even the invisible cactus fruit spines hurt like the dickens and will be on your hands for days!

 

[wellington]

My local produce store sells them. However, they sell what I thought was two kinds. One is like the pictures red, and another that is green outside and greenish white inside. Are there two kinds or are the greenish white ones not ripe yet?
Also, thanks for the serving tip. I always cut them the other way. I like your way better and never thought about it, duh

 

[MovieActor]

I'm pretty sure they are unripened. I've included a photo for reference below. These, ripe and unripened, are from the same species Opuntia.

 

[mainey34]

Green is the pad and the red is the fruit. I bought one. Took a pad off to feed my sully. Didn't think nothing of it. Got a butter knife, and started scraping, mind you I did not have gloves on. Needless to say. It took about a week to get all them darn little prickers out of my hands, arms, feet, toes..I'll never do that again..lol

 

[wellington]

I'm pretty sure they are unripened. I've included a photo for reference below. These, ripe and unripened, are from the same species Opuntia.


View attachment 30079

Yep, that's what they look like, the green ones. Do you know how to ripen them. Can I put them in a paper bag, like avocado? That's the first one I tasted. Not good, kinda flavorless. I haven't tried a ripe on. They probably taste a lot better. Thanks for the clarification.

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Green is the pad and the red is the fruit. I bought one. Took a pad off to feed my sully. Didn't think nothing of it. Got a butter knife, and started scraping, mind you I did not have gloves on. Needless to say. It took about a week to get all them darn little prickers out of my hands, arms, feet, toes..I'll never do that again..lol

I know the difference from pad and fruit. The store I buy the fruit from has green fruit and red fruit. I thought two different kinds. I now know the green fruit is unripened.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

man i have been too chicken to try feeding this to my tort... i have it available to me but hearing all the ouchie stories of the prickers is scary!!

what kind of gloves do you wear? kitchen sink gloves? gardening gloves? heavy duty leather gloves?

 

[wellington]

man i have been too chicken to try feeding this to my tort... i have it available to me but hearing all the ouchie stories of the prickers is scary!!

what kind of gloves do you wear? kitchen sink gloves? gardening gloves? heavy duty leather gloves?

I don't wear any gloves. I don't have a problem at all. The fruit I buy, doesn't have anything on them and the cactus I have are spineless. The little hair like ones don't bother me, but I do try to pick them up where they aren't. Use a pair of tongs and then scrape or burn the spines/hairs off. Or get some good rubber gloves.

 

[CDNPyxis]

I just use a pair of old winter gloves, but you probably don't have those

They are very small on the fruit, I actually have never found the fruit that bad, the pads are worse, any one of the three gloves you mentioned would be fine.

I have a little butane lighter with an adjustable arm on it that I used to burn the spines off of the pads and sometimes the fruit before I cut them up to feed out, worked very well. At the time I did it more for my torts than for me (can't imagine how they would feel on your tongue), but then my Lepoard got into my garden where I had some growing and ate a whole bunch of my plant, after that I decided she didn't need the spines burnt off.

I found the red fruit pretty flavourless also, but I bet any that we get here in VA have traveled a long way.

Craig

 

[Levi the Leopard]

I don't wear any gloves. I don't have a problem at all. The fruit I buy, doesn't have anything on them and the cactus I have are spineless. The little hair like ones don't bother me, but I do try to pick them up where they aren't. Use a pair of tongs and then scrape or burn the spines/hairs off. Or get some good rubber gloves.

my neighbor has a huge opuntia cactus in his front yard just booming with fruits.. so these would be full of pricklers, no?

so i wear some rubber gloves to grab them, tongs to hold them over a fire and burn off the hairy spines, then i should be ok??

for some reason when it comes to insect bites or plant/weed pricklies i have the most sensitive skin and allergic inflamed reactions..

maybe i'll get the guts to get one and try it... if i do, TFO will be the first to know

 

[Yellow Turtle]

That's cool.
My opuntia never grows any fruit

 

[MovieActor]

man i have been too chicken to try feeding this to my tort... i have it available to me but hearing all the ouchie stories of the prickers is scary!!

what kind of gloves do you wear? kitchen sink gloves? gardening gloves? heavy duty leather gloves?

If it is store bought, you won't need gloves. But if it is home grown or taken from a wild plant I strongly recommend wearing garden gloves. It is worth it because torts live the fruit's taste.

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I just use a pair of old winter gloves, but you probably don't have those

They are very small on the fruit, I actually have never found the fruit that bad, the pads are worse, any one of the three gloves you mentioned would be fine.

I have a little butane lighter with an adjustable arm on it that I used to burn the spines off of the pads and sometimes the fruit before I cut them up to feed out, worked very well. At the time I did it more for my torts than for me (can't imagine how they would feel on your tongue), but then my Lepoard got into my garden where I had some growing and ate a whole bunch of my plant, after that I decided she didn't need the spines burnt off.

I found the red fruit pretty flavourless also, but I bet any that we get here in VA have traveled a long way.

Craig

Butane lighter? Why didn't I think of that!? I'm going to do that from now on.

 

[lori12386]

We have a little spanish farmers market thats sells something called a "tuna" it looks just like those unripened. Is that the same thing? I wanted to buy one because it looked like something i had seen. But i wasnt sure. And its hard to ask them if there is another name for it... Lol.

 

[CDNPyxis]

Apparently they are very commonly used in mexican cusine, I used to have a vegetable supply place that sold both the berries and the pads, it was great, but they are gone now

I am sure if they look right, they would be great to feed out.

 

[leonardo the tmnt]

We have a little spanish farmers market thats sells something called a "tuna" it looks just like those unripened. Is that the same thing? I wanted to buy one because it looked like something i had seen. But i wasnt sure. And its hard to ask them if there is another name for it... Lol.

Yeah tunas are the fruit

 

[lori12386]

Awesome. Thanks. I knew i should bought one! Next time.

 

[Jeansie1988]

Mine loves these!!