I’m curious about the cactus fruits. Do you dislike them mainly because of the thorns, or are they just meh. Would any of them grow in zone 3/4? If so, what are the names of the varieties?
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They’re much tinier than I thought they’d be. I got a bunch of them because I really enjoy the flavor of prickly pear cactus fruits and figured these would be similar. But all the ones I have are very small, very seedy, and kind of mucus-like in texture and flavor. And the thorns are definitely annoying and hard to avoid.
I’m not sure if they’d work in your zone. I ordered mine from this place and I think they list hardiness within their descriptions.
I’ll probably keep mine around for another year or two just to see how it goes. Hopefully then end up surprising me.
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Thanks for the reply. For a couple years now I had been toying with the idea of getting some to put in an out of the way spot of poor soil just as a sort of emergency survival food, but sounds like it would have to be quite an emergency for one to break down and eat them. I guess I’ll save my money for something more productive. If you ever decide to get rid of them, I would be happy to take them off your hands just to experiment with, though probably not successfully.
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They root pretty easily from the pads. Just shoot me a pm this winter and I’ll send you some.
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I find it interesting that the flavor of yours is uninspiring. My experience is that the flavor is far superior to the big prickly pears, but the smalll size and high seed to pulp ratio make it harder to use as anything more than a novelty.
@northwoodswis4 the young pads also make a good food, not just for survival. They also have the glochids (tiny spines), but you can either scrape them off or char them off fairly easily. Zone 4 might be pushing it for hardiness, though.
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Not sure how I missed this thread, gorgeous pictures!!! Lovely orchard!
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This is truly amazing stuff, Steven! Please let me know when you’re open for tours in your orchard wonderland!
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Did you grow Dark Star in 2023? With heavy rains this year mine had worst than average splitting problems.
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Yep. It’s become an every-year tomato for me. I tend to grow about 30 varieties each year, usually 10 regulars and 20 new ones. Unfortunately this year has been extremely rainy for me too – I think it’s currently ranked as the 4th wettest summer on record in the Boston area – and so none of the tomatoes have handled it all that well. Kind of a bummer. Squash, though, that’s a whole other story…
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