Question of the Day - Saturday, July 5th, 2025

What is something that is regional/strictly unique to your area that you didn’t realize was regional or unique until recently?

Prickly pear cactus. I've seen it all over our local beaches, but always thought it was a non-native garden escapee. Turns out, it's native to our east coast beaches! I'm definitely moving it from my front porch pots - where it is obnoxiously needy of special care - into my garden, where it can thrive happily under loads of neglect!

I love prickly pear cactus! I haven't seen them since I left Texas. I used to love ordering prickly pear lemonade or a prickly pear margarita, and they were great after long hikes during their fruiting season. We'd pluck the fruit off the cactus and burn the thorns off in the campfire before eating them. Definitely one of my favorite fruits!
 
I love prickly pear cactus! I haven't seen them since I left Texas. I used to love ordering prickly pear lemonade or a prickly pear margarita, and they were great after long hikes during their fruiting season. We'd pluck the fruit off the cactus and burn the thorns off in the campfire before eating them. Definitely one of my favorite fruits!
Me, too! I'm surprised to find that they're native here, though. I'd expect them growing wild in Texas ... but in Maryland? Not so much!
 
What is something that is regional/strictly unique to your area that you didn’t realize was regional or unique until recently?

Prickly pear cactus. I've seen it all over our local beaches, but always thought it was a non-native garden escapee. Turns out, it's native to our east coast beaches! I'm definitely moving it from my front porch pots - where it is obnoxiously needy of special care - into my garden, where it can thrive happily under loads of neglect!
Yes, eastern prickly pear is native to eastern US. Even here in Ohio. I have two growing in my flower bed and they are currently blooming with their gorgeous yellow flowers. Just be careful when weeding by them, they will stick you and it hurts!
 
Yes, eastern prickly pear is native to eastern US. Even here in Ohio. I have two growing in my flower bed and they are currently blooming with their gorgeous yellow flowers. Just be careful when weeding by them, they will stick you and it hurts!
You bet - that was a lesson learned the hard way! Duct tape is our Friend. It takes those nasty little stickers right out of your skin!
 
I love prickly pear cactus! I haven't seen them since I left Texas. I used to love ordering prickly pear lemonade or a prickly pear margarita, and they were great after long hikes during their fruiting season. We'd pluck the fruit off the cactus and burn the thorns off in the campfire before eating them. Definitely one of my favorite fruits!
You can eat them raw??? I grew up in Colorado, raised my kids in New Mexico, have family in Arizona, prickly pear is native to all that area, but we never did anything with it culinarily. Now I see it all the time on the cooking shows I watch, and driving through those states we woud see it offered as jams, jellies and hard candies, but ... raw? What's the flavor like? Is it like aloe?
 
You can eat them raw??? I grew up in Colorado, raised my kids in New Mexico, have family in Arizona, prickly pear is native to all that area, but we never did anything with it culinarily. Now I see it all the time on the cooking shows I watch, and driving through those states we woud see it offered as jams, jellies and hard candies, but ... raw? What's the flavor like? Is it like aloe?

More like a cranberry juice, I want to say? It's sweet, with a taste sort of like a cherry, but very tart at the same time.
 
More like a cranberry juice, I want to say? It's sweet, with a taste sort of like a cherry, but very tart at the same time.
Thank you! Hope I get to try some, sometime. These are called nopales, right? Or are those a different cactus, beavertails?

Edit typos. I always do better with a stylus but I forget, lol.
 
More like a cranberry juice, I want to say? It's sweet, with a taste sort of like a cherry, but very tart at the same time.
The closest I can come is a cross between a strawberry and maybe a lychee - and they're good! And it's chock full of hard-to-remove seeds! Some people eat them, seeds and all, but I have to either puree them or spit 'em out!
 
The closest I can come is a cross between a strawberry and maybe a lychee - and they're good! And it's chock full of hard-to-remove seeds! Some people eat them, seeds and all, but I have to either puree them or spit 'em out!

This comment made me curious, so I looked it up, and apparently the flavor can vary pretty widely depending on the variety of prickly pear and where it grows. I saw a lot of people mentioning how sweet they were without ever mentioning the tartness, and to me the tart is the fruit's stand out feature. I guess I was lucky a tart variety grew where I most often hiked. It does make sense now why a lot of the prickly pear flavorings I've tried were disappointing.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom