Battling the Birds!! A Cactus Farming Saga

**Bugbear** · 4th August 08, 02:04 PM

Every year I have to fight the birds for my prickly pear fruit by covering each fruit with a paper hood. Not an easy task even though these are fairly spineless cacti. The birds usually get to some of them, but this year I've given up. The birds can have them!

I forget which bird it is that likes to poke a hole in the fruit, but I blame those pesky woodpeckers that are always tapping on my aluminum roof. The scarecrow doesn't help either!

There's a crow who lives about fifty feet up in one of the palm trees in my front yard overlooking him.

It's ok though, the fruits are quite full of seeds, difficult to eat, and I'm growing the prickly pears for their pads anyway.

Guess the birds win this one.

* The pictures have been removed. *

**Rex_Tremende** · 4th August 08, 03:30 PM

The fruit are good - tastes like a kiwi. Wasn't so happy about swallowing the seeds, so I juiced them. Yum. The scarecrow sort of resembles you. What do you do with the pads?

Regards,
Rex.

**Bugbear** · 4th August 08, 03:40 PM

Some of them I eat. They make good pickles... prickly pickles

I grow them for people who have African sulcata tortoises, so it's a feed crop. I also grow a few other crops for torts.
You can squish the fruit pulp through a mesh and that takes care of the seeds, but I like eating in the garden like a bug.

**Bugbear** · 5th August 08, 11:00 AM

Guess I have about forty of those prickly pears. They're called indian figs. Most of them are in a hedge row along the side of my property. My cats don't climb up in them, of course, so they can't keep the woodpeckers out...

I cut off pads and take the spines off as people request them, or as I need them. They are very easy to propagate, but not everyone wants to deal with the spines... Grape leaves, hibiscus flowers, and bermuda hay are the other crops. It's extremely boring...

**SexyButler** · 5th August 08, 11:03 AM

Your posts always make me miss AZ!

**Bugbear** · 5th August 08, 11:12 AM

Well,

, right now it is very, very hot, and very humid... Ah, but that's just for a few months.

Hope you make it back for a visit some day, and good to hear from you.

**SexyButler** · 5th August 08, 11:26 AM

Ah yes, monsoon season, the AZ humidity secret!

It always made for some great thunderstorms though!

Good luck with the birds.

**Bugbear** · 5th August 08, 11:36 AM

Yes, the thunderstorms are something else here. especially living in a little, aluminum cottage.

**Ayin McFye** · 5th August 08, 11:43 AM

There's a place up north in Arizona, I believe Flagstaff that makes a Pricky Pear Vodka, and it's amazing. If you are a drinking man, you should give it a try. I'll try and find the name for you if you're interested.

I think you should also go to a fabric store, but 3 yards of cheap plaid and put a kilt on your scarecrow. That'd be awesome.

**Bugbear** · 5th August 08, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by Ayin McFye

There's a place up north in Arizona, I believe Flagstaff that makes a Pricky Pear Vodka, and it's amazing. If you are a drinking man, you should give it a try. I'll try and find the name for you if you're interested.

I think you should also go to a fabric store, but 3 yards of cheap plaid and put a kilt on your scarecrow. That'd be awesome.

I've talked about putting a kilt on him,

, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

I don't drink, but I have heard of that before... It seems like one or two of the restaurants down here have those mixxed prickley pear drinks too.