Figue de Barbarie is what this fruit is called....in France. The Natomas Farm is currently this week harvesting our prickly pear crop. This is the second year of harvesting.
We grow this crop for not only the prickly pear.....we use the leaf of the cactus as well for animal feed. Also.....this cactus crop is planted right up to our fence lines....to use that space that otherwise was being unused. Once the plant is established ......2 to 3 years....it makes the perfect fence to keep out stray dogs and "midnight" pickers. This living fence also keeps our farm animals in. I say the biggest advantage is that we will never have to replace a fence here.....saving money and time.
Does your fence make money for you?
The fruit harvested is taken to be processed into a juice. Last year at this blog....I posted about making juice. Using a food processor..........it took hours and hours to do that task. This year I used a prototype food grinder that I designed and built.......pictured below:
You can see a intake on the top of the unit..........that belongs to a high power garbage disposal! I have a flex hose coming off of the discharge opening......and the grind mush flows into a five gallon bucket.
It worked swell. Processing the amount of fruits that used to take an hour to do......now takes only 3-4 minutes. This winter I will built a food grade unit made of stainless steel. The finished unit will be displayed on the new www.the natomasfarm.com website that is currently under construction.
Yes......that IS a prickly pear cake.
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