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We got a nice letter from a happy customer.
These are always lots of fun for us…
We don’t get to see people face-to-face,
so having them write to us,
about how much they like our cactus is very satisfying.
We grow and sell our cactus for humans to eat…
but many tortoise lovers find it is one of the best foods for dryland tortoises.
We’re just happy folks like it for themselves or their critters!
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John,
The cactus just arrived and has been approved by my tortoises!
Thanks so much, you can add me to your list of happy customers!
We got a nice e-mail from someone who bought some cactus leaves for planting….
“I just received my order from FED Ex, I’m so pleased….. The pads are beautiful and are going to be great in my collection. I really enjoy growing cactus as it’s the only thing i seem to have luck with …. feel free to use any comments in the blog! I’ll be ordering from you guys again in the future! can’t wait to order a robusta from you in the summer!”
We love positive comments, it lets us know we’re on the right track…
Thanks Mike!
From a customer:
Hey John, yes I tried your cactus, Grade A, B and some C and was very happy! I don’t just like it I LOVE it!! I will be one of your regular customers so you will be hearing from me quite often so keep my info, would ya?
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.
Carolyn Niethammer is a really nice lady and a phenominal author of books that center on travel in the US Southwest, Native-American culture and cooking and women’s issues.
Carolyn recently wrote us to say hello, see what’s new and mention her new book…
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Hi John,
Not a question, just a hello. I’m getting ready to turn in another cookbook on edible wild plants and of course wanted to include you so I went to your website to see what was new. You’re selling plants now!
Truly, nothing compares to your nopal grande for taste in my book. I don’t know whether tortoises care that much, but people do!
This book is for the UA Press,
Not scheduled for publication until fall 2011.
The Prickly Pear cookbook still selling well — fortunately there is nothing quite like it (that I’ve seen) so the future for that book still seems bright.
Best to you and Victoria.
Warmly,
Carolyn Niethammer
We are super-lucky having the great customers and associates we do have. We provide a (usually) very high quality product that we’re really proud of.
Many of our customers send us comments letting us know what they think of our cactus. With only a few exceptions (everyone has those I suppose) we have VERY high remarks from customers as to our quality.
We have a customer in Texas (a place where they KNOW cactus) who has been getting our monthly subscription service (that gives a monthly five pound box of cactus) for some time. Recently he decided that he needed to get his cactus more often than once a month… so he’s signed up for a second monthly subscription set to a half month afterwards…. that way he will get a five pound box of cactus every two weeks. He had some comments about our cactus that I thought was so positive I needed to use it for a testimonial. I wrote and asked if I may use his words and name… he wrote me back with affirmation. You can read both here….
“I use the cactus for my two leopard tortoises.
I give them 2-3 leaves every day.
I hate when I run out and have to buy some at the grocery store.
The difference in quality is quite drastic.
Keep up the good work!!!!!”
And the affirmation…
“You can use my comments / endorsement however you want.
It’s SOOOO true.
Whenever your package arrives the first thing I do is throw away
whatever cactus I bought at the grocery store to make room for yours.
I almost feel guilty feeding my tortoises some of the substandard local stuff
I’m forced to resort to – since I’m sure they’re “hooked” on yours.”
Mark M.
Texas
Thanks for being a great customer Mark!
A customer wrote us to let us know how much she and her tortoises like our cactus.
“Thank you for the great box of cactus leaves. Happy Tortoises!!! These are so nice, tender, and crunchy that they will have to share with me!
Thanks for the recipe ideas. One of my favorites is cold, raw, cut into strips and dipped into chunky blue cheese dressing.
I was actually able to grow several nice plants from last year, but we had the first hard freeze in 15 years, so only the ones closest to my house survived and the leaves aren’t big enough yet for hungry torts.
I really enjoy the photos of Rivenrock on your website. It looks like you live in paradise.”
Thanks Patty for sharing our cactus with your torts. We’re happy you all like it… and yes, we do live in a very lovely spot 
We had a short time in winter that we had no cactus to sell… here’s what one new customer had to say….
“Hi Folks, last month I purchased a 5lb. box of grade “D” cactus from you for my tortoises. They love it!…I went back to the website and it says you don’t have grade “D” at the moment. When will you be getting it in? I would like to order more. …My leopard tortoises absolutely love the cactus and it is imperative for their balanced diets. Your prices are exceptional too.” C.F.
Luckily, we’ll have cactus available within a week… the plants are going through their re-growth and are putting out good leaves. Sadly there’s always a month in which the supply is very low… this is part of the reason for our newsletter.. it enables us to keep our customers informed as the the availability of cactus. P.S. the majority of our sales are for human consumption… but it seems it is the tortoise owners who write the most expressing their happiness with our cactus…. but do know, we grow these leaves and sell them for human consumption… it just happens that they are the favored food for tortoises also.
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Most folks who get our cactus are pretty pleased with it. We enjoy getting positive comments… it keeps us and the cactus happy!
Here’s a letter from some folks who purchased leaves for planting, and some for eating, as well as the cactus fruits (called ‘tuna‘ in Spanish) that we were selling until the season recently ended.
John and Vickie,
Thanks for the huge cactus pads!
And thanks for the tuna fruits! The orange tuna were delicious, even the rinds were good. The robusta fruit was pleasant and similar to some of the wild thorny cactuses I sampled this summer. I will appreciate the thornless robusta plant (!) and look forward to the nopales and to finding ways to use the fruits.
L
We like getting e-mails from customers letting us know how much they like the cactus we send them.
Some of our customers not only eat the cactus, they also share it with some of their pets, such as tortoises, iguanas and parrots. Since cactus is so good for humans, I suppose herbivorous and omnivorous animals would be helped by it also. One thing I’ve heard over and over is how much animals are unrestrained in their appreciation for cactus. Here’s a few recent comments from customers…..
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“Our cactus order arrived and it is beautiful. Cactus is Shelldin’s favorite food. We’ll keep in touch.”
T. ‘On an Island’
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”I just recently ordered 5lb box of your cactus and it just arrived today.
You have very fast service and I will be buying my cactus from you in the future.”
And then later…
“Sure you can use my comment, Also i did purchase the Grade D, and like
your website said it doesn’t look that bad at all. Already gave some to
the tortoise and he loves it.
I read up on how to store it, Thanks.
Look forward to ordering with you in the future.”
J.
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“You have excellent cactus AND customer service! I hope I live up to the scale you set!
We really LOVE everything you sent us! I just made ‘Gulasch’ yesterday
I always have put leaves in the salad and serve the fruits as
dessert and we love all of them raw too! What’s not to love about cacti?
(Thanks for removing the spines )
I am also trying to dehydrate the leaves, it takes quite a while at the
temperatures raw people prefer. The fruits almost dry faster and must be a
treat to everybody on this world even dehydrated (nothing beats fresh – how
I envy you!).. Did you ever try to freeze fresh leaves?
I will be back with an order soon.
Thank you so much for sharing your amazing food with us!
H. in Calif
(Note from John, the leaves can be chopped, laid on a cookie sheet and frozen, then put into a bag to store. But they reconstitute mushy and unattractive…. but if they are put into a burrito anyway no one will know… or if fed to tortoises, they will still eat them with gusto, but they do prefer fresh)
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“I actually only order the half pound because I feed it to my baby tortoise, Bodhi. It the perfect size for him because he’s so tiny that if I give it to him every day as part of his meal he finishes off the half pound just before it starts to go bad. Any larger quantity would go to waste. In the future I’d like to get some more tortoises though, and when I do I will order the larger quantities.
Your cactus is by far Bodhi’s favorite thing to eat – I have to chop it up really small so that the grasses and weeds that I feed him in a salad stick to it, otherwise he actually digs through the dish to pick out only the cactus!
Thanks again!”
A
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