Prickly Pear Cactus

It looks very familiar. lol! This cactus grows wild in the canyons and the sides of hills here in San Diego.

I just tasted the fruit for the first time and was surprised by how sweet and delicious it was - I see "prickly pear smoothies" in my future, LOL

Yes, some varieties are very sweet. I just ate my dragon fruit (from my vine) on Thanksgiving Day. It was super juicy and sweet.

Dragon Fruit? That another one I'd like to try. I heard all good things about it.

I've had my dragon fruit vine for many years. It doesn't produce much fruit. I've pollinated it and for some reason it still didn't produce much fruit. I think I figured out why it doesn't much fruit, because it needs more water. lol.

I'm by no means an expert but water is probably essential.

The drought here is so extreme...unfortunately, we can't water very much due to water restrictions. Many of my plants have been suffering so badly. We are hoping for some real rains this season...as last year we had so very little rain and very warm to hot weather in the middle of winter. The predictions for December is much above temperature. I hope even if it's warm we still receive rain!

I hope you get the rain you need as well. I heard about some peculiar weather pattern circulating above California which keeps the state hot and dry. How very odd.

For me, it's the extreme cold. Last year, many of my plants (supposedly hardy) never came back after our brutally cold and relentless winter with sub-zero temps and back-to-back blizzards.

Yes, I heard about the brutally cold winter for most the of the mid-West and Eastern States last year. It appears to be starting off very cold again this season for most of the US. I hope it's not a precursor to how cold it will be this winter for you.

Last winter there was a huge pocket of very unusually warm waters off the coast of southern Alaska and Washington State which caused the weather to stay extremely dry and warm for most of the west. This year there's suppose to be an El Niño...not sure exactly how strong it will be, though. The Pacific Ocean has been well above average since spring here in San Diego and it's still between 66 - 69ºF in the beginning of Dec. The ocean average now should be closer to 62ºF in San Diego.

We are getting a lot of moisture coming up form Hawaii. It's called the "Pineapple Express". I hope we get the rain the weather forecasters are predicting we will receive!

Most of California's reservoirs are at extremely low levels, from: 3 - 26% capacity. The worst drought conditions since 1976 to 1978.

I bought a bag of opuntia fruits from the market when we were on holiday one year. They were quite nice, but you have to be careful to remove all the little hairs because they are barbed and stick in your fingers.
I hope you get your rain Delonix.

I would only handle with a pair of thongs. The skin comes off rather easily

Can't remember what I did now - rather think I scraped them. The man on the market stall told me what to do.

Here at my market in New York, they prepped and De-barbed. A couple passes with a blow-torch does the trick quite nicely.

I'd probably set the house on fire...

LOL The stove?