The Portion of my Inheritance

Texas is a great place to be if you every find yourself in the predicament of needing to use your survival skills. 

Our survival skills class has already discovered  the astonishing Mesquite tree with it’s tasty bean pods. You can check it out here:

https://theportionofmyinheritance.com/2013/10/02/mesquite-pancakes/

Our next discovery was just as surprising–Prickly Pear Cactus!  Texas has no short supply of yet another annoying little plant that covers every. entire. inch. of the state. Well . . . not exactly, but it sure seems like it does, it’s everywhere! In fact, it is just a few yards outside my front door, in every direction. Little did I know what gems that existed within my reach.                    

The tops of the cactus, which is the fruit can be made into candies, jellies and smoothies. But we concentrated on the green part called the pad.

The pad is full of spines, so we scraped them off with a knife and cut it up into long, thin pieces. 

Then we boiled it in water with an onion and some garlic for 40 minutes, then let it cool. 

Next we fried them in oil until they were almost crisp, then salted them–salt is a must!

Then comes the tasting?!?!?!

Everyone agreed that they tasted a lot like green beans . . . . but wait!

The wonder of these plentiful prickly plants is that not only do they survive the extreme Texas weather, but there are some medicinal properties as well.  The Prickly pear cactus can be used to help control type 2 diabetes and for high cholesterol!  

I have had a change of heart, the Prickly Pear Cactus is definitely worth a second look.

Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.  Numbers 13:26