If you've ever bugged out in the desert then you know it can be challenging finding food. If you were ever to get stranded in the wilderness without food, it would be easy to die depending on which desert you're in.
In the southwest, you will find cacti everywhere. In particular, one cactus that's easy to find is the prickly pear, which just so happens also to be an excellent food source.
Prickly pear cacti have large pads that store water and produce flowers. Its stems are filled with glochids, which are barbed spines. Unfortunately, glochids will prick a person's tongue and skin and are difficult to remove, but when you can finally get to the fruit not only is it tasty but it's also rich in fiber. It can also stabilize a person's blood sugar levels!
There is also evidence that suggests that the pulp from a prickly pear contains pectin which can help get rid of the “bad” cholesterol in a person's body.
Now that you know how many benefits a prickly pear cactus has, how do you go about eating it without getting hurt? After the break watch a fascinating video of a prepper who shows us how it's done.
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Should a picky prepper eat a prickly pear?
Prickly pear jelly is soooo good. Use the pads n salad…
The eggcorns of the oak tree have tannis in them, that make them bitter and hard to digest. The tannis in the eggcorn needs to be leached out. Boiled eggcorns taste like boiled chestnut.
The indigenous of California had other methods of leaching out the tannis, and commonly ground it up in mortars, and pestals, than flower for cakes, to transport.
Believe it or not, the desert has more life, and more food than the conifer forest (with there thick pine needle mating), that cover much of north America.
“Challenging” isn’t the word I’d use…