Barrell cacti flower later than typical during dry summers, but they have enough water saved to do so during droughts, according to Mark Dimmitt, former director of natural history at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. “Fruit stays on trees until it is consumed by an animal, generally a woodpecker or a squirrel. I’ve observed fruit that is still present the following year when the plants are in bloom in gardens without animals.”
They are completely edible raw, according to Niethammer. The fruit has a mild, lemony flavor, and the shiny, black seeds are simple to remove.
However, she admitted that calling it “delicious” might be overstating the case.
They aren’t as ripe as saguaro or prickly pear fruits, according to Niethammer. No one will include them as a significant portion of their diet.
They can be taken out of the plant with just a twist, Niethammer explained. You simply jiggle the dried flower that is affixed on the fruit with extreme caution.
The “Cooking the Wild Southwest” book by Niethammer provides instructions on how to “fancy up” barrel cactus fruit. The book’s recipes include:
- pineapple and barrel cactus cake
- Mango barrel salsa with cactus
- Made with lemon and barrel cactus, desert sun jam
- Cactus barrel chutney
- Crispy cactus seed chips in a barrel
The fruit
Sliced and with the seeds taken out, cactus fruit dries out quickly and the mucilage loses its effectiveness. I harvested three pint jars of these dried goods in approximately twenty minutes, which is a respectable output.
Dehydrating tames the cactus slime
The fruit itself won’t produce as much as it appears to because the tiny pumpkins are packed with dark seeds, but believe me when I say it’s worth going out of your way to grab some. Before drying, I cut some of mine into quarters and some into rings; either method may work for you. They can keep for a very long time in a jar once they have dried. Though some seeds will cling to the chopped fruit while drying, these can be readily shook or winnowed and mixed with the other seeds.
The buds were a lovely addition to blood sausage tacos made with toasted cactus seed after drying, boiling, and marinating.
There are a few recipes available online for cooking, but the most are just stuffed full of sugar. In my opinion, this is a lazy approach that will make everything taste good. I’ve discovered that stew or soup is the best way to use these. You can simmer them in your soup to prepare from dried ingredients. It takes them some time to soften, but once they do, they transform into little tart pieces that subtly flavor a cooking liquid, rather like avgolemono soup.
I created an incredible stew using dried cactus buds that had a desert vibe. The fruit gives broth a tangy flavor. As you eat, you dunk a sourdough flatbread made from cactus seeds into the liquid.
The dish I created with goat, tepary beans, wood ash hominy, dried cactus fruit, and a sourdough flatbread baked with the seeds you dip into the broth as you eat was the finest; it is depicted above. The highlight of the meal was undoubtedly the cactus fruit, which is by far my favorite desert food to date.
Fruits that have been sliced hollowed out after the seeds are removed. I throw away the pinnacle tops.
The seeds
Mine were scraped out of the fruit, dried, and set aside for a while. Although I wasn’t expecting much, I thought I should attempt using the seeds as they account for about 40% or so of the cactus fruit’s bulk. As a garnish or sprinkle, they’re fine when they’re fresh. They taste bland and are grainy when dried and consumed raw. With fresh saguaro cactus seeds and green tomatoes, Felicia produced a delicious sweet chutney.
Toasting
When the seeds were toasted, they released a deep, nutty aroma that was almost like that of roasted roots or a coffee substitute. For cooking, they were what I would describe as half grain and half fragrant, and they added flavor to a cornmeal flatbread. Just be sure to grind the food as finely as you can. I did extremely good.
Which cactus fruit can you eat?
Opuntia, the prickly pear, is a remarkably adaptable food source. Both the fruit (tunas) and the pads (nopales) are edible, although care should be taken when gathering and preparing them.
Are the blooms of a barrel cactus edible?
Buds are collected in the early to mid-summer months. From late November through March, fruits are gathered. You can harvest flesh at any time. Once the cactus have been felled by a storm, the roots are gathered.
Processing & Setting Up:
Flower buds: Harvesting flower buds can be difficult. I have popped them off with flathead screwdrivers or tongs (which I’ll take with me for prickly pear harvest anyhow). Don’t take more than 10% from one place. You should have plenty left over to harvest. Put your collection in a plastic bucket, a paper bag, or a basket. Take care not to bruise the buds during harvesting because they are not particularly fragile but more so than the fruit. Not a ready-to-eat wild meal, the buds. Processing them will take some time and work. Our preferred technique is pickling or brining. There are a few ways to accomplish this. The ingredients are prepared in a canning pot using vinegar. We can employ fermentation caused by environmental bacteria to enable for preservation if we use salt (perhaps with a little vinegar). We’ve done both “cold processing,” where the salt and lactic acid from the bacteria do all the “cooking,” and “hot canning,” where we heat the fruit. Try different things to determine which matches your preferences the best. Remember that the cold procedure will preserve the barrel cactus buds sharper and firmer while the frying method will produce a softer bud. How you want to flavor them is another choice you’ll have to make. Similar to olive brining, adding spices like onion, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, thyme, tomatillos, mustard seed, sugar, honey, fresh cilantro, wild oregano, oreganillo, pepper, etc. can change the flavor of the food. Use what is now growing in your garden as well as what you have already collected and preserved from the previous season. You might get some inspiration from a visit to the local farmer’s market. Sorting your buds is the first step. You have the option to slice them lengthwise or crosswise before brining them. Even while those that are left whole may take longer to brine, you might wish to do so so that they might serve as a garnish for your wild food feast. The buds might be able to separate if you cut the food lengthwise. They have overlapping sheets that resemble an artichoke in structure (a flower bud itself). Prepare all of your spices in advance so that you may stack them with the flower buds. You may also add it all at once and shake the mixture while screwing the canning cover on. Cover all the ingredients with liquid. You can dilute the vinegar with no less than 25% water for a softer flavor. Use two teaspoons of salt per quart when using the salt technique. Shake well after adding all preferred flavorings. Then, for about 4 days, place the open jar with a cheesecloth covering the opening on your countertop or in another warm location. The top should now start to develop some bubbles that weren’t there previously. Place the jar aside in a cool, dark area with a loose cover on it. The remaining pickling/fermenting steps ought to take 2-4 weeks. Refrigerate covered items for storage.
Fruit/Seeds: You will cut the fruits in half to allow some moisture to evaporate before completing the operation because the fruits and the damp seeds within are mucilaginous. Cut away the flower’s remains (tepals) first, then the hard flesh below. Now open the fruit like a book by cutting it in half lengthwise. Check the moisture content of the seeds. Harvests in the later part of the season may become quite dry, making this procedure unnecessary. If the fruit seeds are very wet, set them upright on a flat basket, tray, or pan and let them air dry for one to three days, depending on the moisture levels. If you attempt to remove the seeds as soon as they are moist, you could discover that they are too sticky and difficult to handle. Start sifting the seeds with a metal spoon into a dry cast iron skillet once they have dried enough to handle. Perhaps the seeds are still tacky. Turn the heat to low and place the pan on the stove. Stir the seeds every few minutes. If you notice any “then the flame is too high and pops. The seeds should only be very briefly roasted until the extra moisture is evaporated. While the moisture is evaporating, steam should start to rise from the pan. It might take 10 to 20 minutes. When the seeds are cool, put them in a glass jar and store them in the dark, covered, or in the refrigerator or freezer. Use your ingenuity when adding the seeds to foods like breads, hot cereal, cereals, soups, smoothies, squash recipes, salad dressings, and sauteed greens. The seeds can also be processed into flour (see Recipe below). Alternately, you can dry the seeds in the sun for 1-2 days, weather allowing. This method won’t flavor the very bland seeds like toasting does, but it may cause less damage to the oils inherent in the seeds.
The fresh fruit halves are now available for processing. Since they are fibrous, you should probably break them into smaller pieces before eating. Chutney is one of my favorite ways to prepare them.
To start, cut the cactus flesh into strips or chunks that are 1/4–1/8 inches wide. The chunks will only get softer no matter how long you boil them for. I advise filling a pot with just enough water to cover the fruit and bringing it to a boil. When the pot reaches a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and leave the lid on. You can now add raisins, salt, vinegar, and spices (such as cinnamon, ginger, and clove or chili). Before adding the remaining ingredients, cook the fruit for at least 60 minutes to soften the flesh. To avoid exposing the honey to high heat for an extended period of time, I like to add it last. You can add the sugar at any moment. When the fruit has reached the desired consistency, the chutney is finished. Keep in mind that while it will soften, it won’t turn creamy. When the heat is off, add the garlic and olive oil. If done this way, the garlic’s medicinal properties will be at their peak. Pour the hot chutney into canning jars and tightly screw the lid on if you’re making a big amount. This may be sufficient for use at home, but depending on your elevation, boil your chutney in a water bath for 15 to 25 minutes to ensure it is shelf stable (higher elevation, longer time).
It’s actually that easy. Oven: Preheat to 325°F. Place the fruit slices on a baking sheet after dipping them in honey or simple syrup (and maybe some spices). Place the object in the oven, and bake until almost caramelized (15-25 minutes). The more ripe fruit really soaks up the honey or syrup and has a chewy feel when done, whereas the tougher portions come out less tasty. Cool completely before storing in glass containers. We have discovered that barrel cactus is rather resistant after dried, even when reconstituted. As a result, we advise preparing fresh fruit.
Set the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the coconut oil until it becomes liquid. Combine each dry component. Add to the rest of the ingredients. swiftly while blending smoothly. Put inside a 9 x 9 “baking pan with butter. To distribute the batter throughout the pan evenly, you might need to mold it with your hands. Bake the pan for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
With organic butter, serve hot. Toast any leftover bread with butter in a cast iron pan before dishing. Enjoy!
Flesh: The Seri, or Cmcaac, people of coastal Sonora typically ingest the flesh as a source of hydration. Here is a picture of a siml that was just made. When a Seri is traveling across extensive stretches of desert without access to natural water sources, he will search for a barrel cactus when he becomes thirsty. From Puerto Peasco to Guaymas, Sonora, they have survived in some of the driest and hottest parts of the Sonoran desert. 90% of the year is dry in the majority of this area. They will first grab a few armloads of thin, light, very combustible brush to stack around the cactus when they feel the need to rehydrate. Once set, this fast brush fire will reach high temperatures and burn through most of the spines, making handling easier. Once sufficiently cooled, the cactus is turned over and uprooted. Then the Barrel Cactus is split in half circumferentially. The flesh inside tastes like a cross between a marshmallow, an apple, and a jcama. The flavor is wet and slightly bitter with a soapy undertone. It is consumed with a little sugar and salt by my Seri friends (as they do skinned Cholla fruit). I have observed young Seri boys going back for piece after piece all day long as if it were chocolate cake, while some unfamiliar stomachs may find it a little nauseous after many bits (perhaps due to oxalic acid?) Slices of it were previously prepared by the Gila River Pima in water with mesquite pods or subsequently with sugar. The chewable cactus candy that was previously manufactured from this cactus flesh and sold to both tourists and locals throughout the Southwest is what gave the plant the name Candy Barrel Cactus. The slices could also be cooked for a while in saguaro or organ pipe fruit juice (Tohono O’Odham), then removed to dry and turned into a sweet preserve. Roots: The roots of the Jumping Cholla (Cylindropuntia fulgida) cactus can be utilized similarly. But I don’t suggest pulling them out of a live plant. There will be some exposed roots on a downed barrel cactus that will quickly dry out and die due to storm damage and other factors. You can cut the cactus’ roots back from the base if you’re at the correct spot at the right time. after which chop and dry to set aside for tea. Similar to cholla root, it can be used as a decoction or tea to treat infections of the genitourinary tract, stones that are prone to forming, and irritations of the urinary system.