Rivenrock Gardens Cactus Blog… go to www.rivenrock.com for edible cactus

   We got an e-mail from a new customer….

   “How should store cactus that I have received, which by the way is quite nice looking and my torts love it!!”

  We wrote back….

 Most folks seem to get by fine (a couple weeks or three, even a month) with the cactus in the box, open, sitting under a bench in the garage.
   All you need is a cool spot, and not a lot of light. In fact, in general the darker the better, but you don’t have to aim for real darkness.
   Some folks keep it in the fridge. But don’t wrap it too tightly. The leaves should not have moisture against them.
 
  We’re glad you like the leaves.
   Is it ok if we put your happy testimonial in our ‘customer testimonials’ section? We could use just your initials. That preserves your privacy.
 
   I’d also put my reply, this will help to inform other folks who browse the site.
 
   This is the tough time of year for us, the quality stays about like this for another couple of months, and then starts to get better as the spring comes in and brings the fresh leaves on. So if you like them now, you’ll just be happier with them come springtime.
 
  Also, we really do sell these with the intent of people eating them, but we’re just as happy to sell for tortoises to eat… but we encourage you to try some… use one of the younger thinner fresher looking leaves… they’re pretty good cleaned, diced and added to fried potatoes and eggs in the morning. Good for you too. In fact, cactus is considered a healthy food, indeed a ‘health food’ that the grandmothers run for when people have certain ailments. Just a little bit daily is real good for a person.
 
    We have just started back with our ‘monthly subscription’ for five pounds… this year for $23. This is for the five pound Grade ‘C’ leaves. In general you’d probably be pretty happy with the grade C. But they are more likely to be the ones with big holes from a rock during a storm, or the top half gone due to frost. You still get about the same weight, just more will look a bit rough.  We can’t offer subscription offers like that with the Grade B because we often have frost or something that removes Grade B from the roster. So all we’d have then is Grade C anyways. And there have been times we’ve stopped all new sales to new customers so we could continue the monthly subscriptions.  But we’re doing ok so far this year.  We had one big huge freeze for three nights in a row in Dec… but we were able to keep the plants from freezing too badly.  And a heat wave (temps in the 80′s) for three weeks afterwards gave us new growth we hope will mature  into good leaves in March and April. But once May comes, we’re usually doing just great, with fine leaves, and all the grades actually (pretty much) do go up a notch in quality.
 
   We’re glad to have you as new customers, and hope you will continue to buy the great Organic Edible Cactus of Rivenrock Gardens,
 
Thanks,

  They wrote back…

Thank you for the reply and of course you may put it in your site, I will send pics of the torts eating also to the site. I am sure I will try it myself eventually and look forward to a long relationship with you as my torts will live a very long time.

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  A long business relationship is what we seek.  Our business has been growing much like a tortoise, slow, steady and sustainable. We have gradually increased our growing area and proficiency as our sales have increased.  We are in this for the long haul, much of our production is from varieties that might take years to come into full maturity, but will live for decades in the same spot, putting out good leaves each year during those times.

   Yes, slow and steady suits us just fine.