permaculture

[Mikal Jakubal <mjakubal@asis.com>]

You wrote:

>Prickly Pear Cactus in parts of Mexico, but know one I've communicated with 
>has had any data other than "chop it up and add some of the slime to your 
>clay".  

There's lots of information on this in the strawbale building milieu. For
starters, check out the current issue of The Last Straw  "lime plaster
issue." There is a short article on the subject illustrated with a
beautiful photo of a young boy dropping a pad into a boiling pot. Info on
The Last Straw can be found at <thelaststraw@strawhomes.com> *
<www.strawhomes.com>. Bill and Athena Steen wrote the article and have been
working extensively with the stuff down in Mexico. They can be reached at
<absteen@dakotacom.net>.  Check out their web site for cool stuff that
they're doing <www.caneloproject.com>. The current issue of The Last Straw
also has nopal (the Mexican word for Opuntia species, aka prickly pear)
recipes. 

Which brings up another good thing about them. They're edible, both young
pads and fruit. And they look nice. So that's four uses of a widely
adaptable, easily cultivated plant that takes very little water (but likes
it when available).
There are thornless varieties developed for eating, and really thorny ones
that I'm incorporating into my nasty-neighbor exclusion system ("fence" in
usual terms).

Oregon Exotics <www.exoticfruit.com> has all sorts of edible Opuntia
varieties available for sale, along with lots of other really cool stuff
that will be of interest to permie-types. (A bit on the pricey side,
though, in my opinion.)

Mikal

Hey, anyone out there have useful (food, flowers, thorns...) Opuntias that
you'd like to trade? I've got some mean thorny ones, and a whole lot of the
common prickly pear (O. ficus indica). On the last trip to the Southwest I
got a bunch of varieties of "cholla"-type Opuntias but they haven't rooted
yet. Write me off-list.