Phoenix Public Market celebrated one of Arizona’s most versatile native plants on Saturday: the opuntia, also known as the prickly pear at the first annual Prickly Pear Festival.
Saturday’s festival was all about the prickly pear, it’s spikey green paddles and bright red fruit. Peggy Sue Sorensen is the administrator of The Desert Kitchen, a local group focused on the merits of Arizona’s native flora, and said the prickly pear, “a real superfood that is not recognized.” She considers the cactus a viable home remedy.
“My grandmother used to have these red fruits in her backyard and I always wondered if they were edible, but I never took one because it’s covered in spikes!” said Trish Harris. Many Arizonans have no idea of the benefits let alone the safe process of removing the spiky bristles on the cacti, called glochids.
Sorensen’s prickly pear workshop told attendees of the benefits of both the green part of the plant, or the pads of the cactus, as well as the red fruit.
Sorensen said the inside of the cactus plant helped prevent infection on her foot after an injury. To show attendees, she carefully cut open the plant and used the sticky slim inside over her potential infectious area.
Sorensen is not the only one who has experienced the multiple uses the prickly pear possesses. Native American tribes of the Southwest have been using the plant before the arrival of the Spanish for everything from clothing dye to home remedy to food. The prickly pear has been touted for its antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties and has been used in diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity treatments and even hangover cures.
After the workshop, Chef Kevin Lebron showed a cooking demonstration. Anna Morris, a 65-year-old prickly pear enthusiast, attended the festival.
“I love cooked nopal,” Morris said, using the Spanish name of the edible cactus, which can be the pads as well as the fruit. “I actually buy mine here from a vendor so that I don’t have to prepare it at home…it pairs well with Mexican salsa and cheese.”
Contact the reporter at kvescoba@asu.edu.
