I like it when good news comes out on the beneficial effects of cactus. Most people just think about the health effects, or the pretty flowers… but cactus can also help revitalize soils… building them up by capturing blowing dust and organic debris, and now a study shows they can even absorb excess sodium from soils.
This fellow sells juicers… and I like the type of juicer he uses which is called a ‘centrifigal’ juicer….
He also gives a very detailed description of how to select and prepare the cactus fruit for juicing…
Frieda’s is a large specialty-fruit company.
In fact, it’s the first large food distribution company in the US founded by a female.
In this video they show how the cactus fruits can be prepared and used.
They like to hop around cactus and other desert brush looking for grubs, ants and other bugs…. sometimes they will supplement their diet with cactus fruit. They like to nest in trees, but will also use large cactus.
Ladder-Backed Woodpecker
The photo above shows a young ladder backed woodpecker in our cactus… from this angle we can see the fine patterns defining the horizontal bands.
This is a little video I made of this woodpecker hopping around the cactus. They are fun to watch as they make many acrobatic moves……
Woodpecker nest in an Agave stalk
A few years ago, our neighbors had a pair nest in this agave stalk……
The agave will throw out this large stalk with flowers in one summer….. after it blooms most people leave the spent flower stalk up for a few years, until they rot and fall down (they are striking plants)…..
Woodpecker nest in an Agave stalk
Here we can see the hole they constructed in the side of the agave stalk… the nest opening faces northwest in this case….. one hole is about four feet over the other one.. both openings facing the same direction……
Ladder-Backed Woodpeckers range through most of Mexico, and much of the US Southwest…. but actually, they are not supposed to be this close to the coast….. but they do seem to like it here.
A resort under construction in Malibu contacted us and asked for a few hundred cactus cuttings to be planted around the edges of their property, to cover the new shiny fence. They are working their grounds over using bio-dynamic means… and are trying to procure organic materials where they can. Since Malibu is so close, it seemed a fitting thing to just load them into a van and run them down the coast… that way we can give them even larger-than-usual cuttings…
I was VERY impressed with the history of the ranch the spa is being built on. It was connected to a person well-known to people of the world. It has quite a storied past…. even more is the location of the spa itself… high on top of a hill in the Santa Monica Mountains…. with a great view of the sea….. stunning. There’s not much that could make me want to leave this canyon I call home…. the Santa Monica Mountains and Malibu is a sure thing to attract me.
roof condensation
Cactus have little holes to breath through like most other plants…. they are called stomata. Most plants do their breathing in the daytime when the sun is shining and powering the miracle called photosynthesis.. this is when the plants need to exchange their gasses and exchange their waste Oxygen for the Carbon Dioxide they need…. but cactus don’t want to do that on a hot summer day… they’d lose too much water in the dry heat.. so they have a special way to do these.. they keep the stomata closed in the daytime, ’store’ the waste Oxygen in acid packs near the stomata…. and in the nighttime they will open up and exchange the gasses, losing less internal moisture in the cooler moister night air.
But when you cut a thousand pounds of cactus, and set it into a van overnight… all that released water vapor will fill the van.. and when it gets cold, the moisture near the cold metal will condense…. so in the morning the roof was dripping water… and I had to wipe the interior of the windows to see out.
Double-cuttings for Malibu
Since we didn’t have to worry about shipping costs, we were able to give them extra large cuttings. They were really impressed with the cactus, and very enthusiastic… they asked if I’d be willing to come by and look them over on occasion…. yes….. anything to get me to Malibu! And also… this resort is going to be stunning…. they don’t have construction workers doing the work… they have craftsmen and artisans…. the entire place is going to be a massive work of art… and I like art a lot… let me see the painting when it is finished!
We had six weeks of amazing weather from early January to mid February 2011. This unusually warm weather caused the cactus to leaf out much more than usual for this time of year. As a result we were able to ship really fine cactus in the middle of winter.
But early and false springs can confound when the weather turns back to normal…. and on Feb 18 and 19 we got hit with hail.. which while not unknown here, when it does hit us, we usually don’t really have any tender actively-growing leaves to be damaged. But after the happy occurrence of the warm spring weather, the beautiful and luscious happy cactus leaves grew out, but they were sitting ducks for hail in February.
Only one side of the leaves got hit, and most of the leaves were spared damage due to being behind other leaves…
We’ll be able to sell many of these leaves as Grade C. The small dents in the leaves are cosmetic, and require no cutting away. We’ll make sure to spread the hurt among all boxes.. so no one gets hit with the lions’ share of pitted leaves. Some of them will go as Grade ‘D’…. those folks will probably be pretty happy to get some of these leaves in such fine condition for Grade D.
The red dots on some of the older leaves are due to drops of water freezing on the leaves and causing a ‘scab’.
At any rate… I think this is all part of the fun in agriculture.. the unknowing, the learning… the loss of control… you can’t hold back a storm, you have to grow things that will survive your local conditions. And it helps to have customers like ours who understand the seasonal variation in the quality of the leaves.. and are willing to live with what the plants can naturally produce without hurting them or the local surroundings.
We have occasional requests for unrooted cuttings from folks wanting to plant a ‘living fence’. Such a fence is usually a thorny or thick hedge intended to serve much as a conventional fence but created entirely from living plants.
Cactus is well suited for this use…. there are many species of cactus that have a cylindrical appearance and spines.. others growth a thick hedge of spiny leaves that reach high and wide. We don’t sell too many really spiny cactus… most of our cactus is selected to be fairly low spine. Still some of our Opuntia cactus could be placed two feet apart from one another in a line… that mass of leaves alone would serve as quite a fence.
Cereus peruvianus and Agave americana in our front yard
Chica by a puddle
The trees reflected in the puddle by rocky and Chica
Euphorbia resinifera (poison arrow) plant
Old Man of the Andes Cactus
Old Lady Cactus
Manzanita
We had a lot of rain in December. At one point we got some ten inches of rain in a week. This is about one third of our usual yearly rainfall. We were forced indoors most of the month… but there were a day or two here and there that allowed us to get some air and take a walk around. One of those days I took these photos…. while walking around our house.
“What is good for the Russian, will kill the German”
Russian saying
Not all things that are good for one area are necessarily good for another. While cactus is native to the Americas, it grows well in other areas of the world with similar climates. It has become endemic and is even a pest in some parts of Africa and the Mediterranean region. It ran its course in Australia where it became such a hugely noxious weed that it was outlawed. The sale of cactus leaves and fruit became an under-the-counter ‘Black-Market’ activity.
We got a letter from someone in Kenya asking for advice on how to fight the spiny cacti that have taken over their communal grazing land…. Here is a short series of letters and replies…
He asked…
My community has suffered a lot because of cactus. How can we get rid of it.
I replied…
Here many ranchers burn the spines off with propane, then they feed it to the cattle. Not too much at a time, it should not be a lot over ten% of the entire food fed. Some places pile dry brush around a section of plants, let that burn… the pads then become half cooked and many animals can then eat them. One area of Mexico feeds the milk cows the cactus pads.. it is said to make the milk taste better, they get more money for that milk. Too much makes the animals’ stools runny… bad. Other than that. cut the pads, pile them high, use animal manures to help it rot…. keep cutting deeper into the plant, bit by bit. It takes a lot of work. Better is a tractor if you can use one, pile it all and let it rot. Keep tearing off and killing any leaves that sprout.My father was in Kenya in the 50′s. I feel for that pretty country he talks about some.Let me know if it helps. Best is to use the cactus where you can, while you reduce its danger.
He wrote back….
Thanks very much John
i am very happy hearing from you , you may have heard about the Maasai people, they are majorly pastoral and keep Livestock as their main economic mainstay, i am part of this community and currently pursuing a degree program in Environmental planning and Natural resource management at the University of Nairobi on a scholarship base. i have been particularly vocal over the opuntia `Opuntia Megacantha` menace that has drastically affected our livestock and hence our Nomadic traditional lifestyle which is deeply enshrined in livestock.
i am so happy to receive your ideas and suggestions, the propane way sounds workable and may be we shall try this, the idea is to utilize with gradual eradication until we see the whole weed off. The Maasai people dont want it at all and they would rather wish that it disappear as soon as possible.The said cactus has spread and rendered a big portion of our communally owned land useless and pastoralist populations are forced to abandon their homes because of its infestation, our cattle,sheep and goats feed on the red fruits and the tiny spines settle along the alimentary canal ( from mouth to Anus) creating wounds and eventual deaths, funny enough when the animals begin feeding on it they become addicted and despise any other fodder! really crazy!
I am also happy that your father once visited our country, i think you should also visit us soon and help us fight opuntia! Kenya is a good country and my community enjoys interacting with friends as we reside around most Game reserves.
i am personally requesting you to link us with friends who might help us manage this problem. i will try and send you some of our media coverage on the same.
Thank you so very much and say hi to your family and Rivenrock Gardens team!
This was very touching…. it’s a shame for people to have to abandon land and old ways due to things like drought, economics and war… yet we know those happen, but to have to leave because cactus has taken over is too much! Anyone who wishes to contact these folks and make donations for propane, or any other supplies can get with us, we’ll send your e-mail on to them so you all can talk.
A customer wrote to tell us how much she likes our edible cactus….
I do have to say that this is the best cactus I’ve ever had!
My favorite is eating it raw with some lime and salt.
I also have a smoothie every morning
with orange juice, cactus, celery, parsley and pineapple.
S.R.
Fine Art black and white cactus images by French photographer Philippe Perrin. Taken in Mexican deserts. As part of the book ‘La memoria inmòvil’ that will be soon published in Mexico
info. email: photoandfashionstudio@gmail.com
