I have almost infinite nopal (prickly pear cactus pads) in my garden....which I have been eating nearly every day... curious what's the nutrition content of them. πŸ€”

(answer, per Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia

#gardening #cactus

Next time I slice myself open on something in the garden, will try this... (probably will be tomorrow, lol, or later today)

Per reference on Wikipedia:

"Prior to modern medicine, Native Americans and Mexicans primarily used Opuntia as a coagulant for open wounds, using the pulp of the stem either by splitting the stem or scraping out the pulp"

#cactus

***is there any health benefit/detriment to regularly scratching/cutting yourself while hiking/gardening? Asking for a friend? πŸ€ͺ
@ai6yr I tell people that practice makes perfect so I'm going to be fantastic at healing.
@ai6yr Eventually your body becomes entirely scar tissue, and you can terrify children at swimming pools! Other than that, you mean? Um...
@ai6yr keeps your humors in balance.
@ai6yr
How else are you going to introduce some weird fungus directly into your bloodstream?

@ai6yr

Not me, but a family member...

Scrape on the calf from a splintery old raised bed in the garden. It was either that or a bug bite while gardening, that led to infection and then sepsis, requiring a stay in the hospital and IV antibiotics.

Not all immune system challenges work out well.

@murodegrizeco @ai6yr that's why I take a tetanus shot every 10 years

@FaithinBones

Embarrassing, but one time I was working in the garden with a pitch fork, and when I was done, I unthinkingly stuck it tines down in the soil by my feet...but I missed the soil.

A friend came over about then, and I said,

"Hey, I know we were going to go out to lunch, but instead could you take me to a medical clinic first?"

Antibiotic and a tetanus shot.

@ai6yr

dunno but

i was reading the other day that having regular contact with the 'soil microbiome' is prolly a good thing

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00779-w

Soil microbiomes and one health - Nature Reviews Microbiology

One health links human, animal and environmental health, and microorganisms have a central role in this connection. In this Review, Banerjee and van der Heijden outline the central role of the soil microbiome for one health and its detrimental or beneficial effects.

Nature
I would argue that the risk, no, certainty of occasional damage that comes from staying active is far less than the certainty of continual damage that results from staying inactive.
@ai6yr

@ai6yr

do you get extra irony points if you wound yourself harvesting the cactus?

@paul_ipv6 This has happened! πŸ˜‚
@ai6yr I learned about that as a kid and have tried it several times. In my experience it does work for minor wounds.
@greene Ha! I will try that.
@ai6yr
The glochids will make you forget about the scratches if your not careful lol.

@ai6yr

Didn’t know that about opuntia & wound healing. Have some growing here in NY, may try it.
But if you have yarrow growing, the leaves (possibly flowers & stems?) have styptic properties & quickly stop bleeding of cuts - at least small ones. Quicker & less messy than dealing with cactus.

@ai6yr It’s surprising that you’re not more prickly all the time!
@ai6yr
More than enough C to fend off scurvy.
@ai6yr
Looks pretty great! I have to admit that I'm not quite curious enough about the taste and texture of prickly pear to purchase the shrivelled remnants that hit our grocery shelves, but I'd certainly try them if I lived in a region where they grow. I pat myself on the back every day for eating locally-grown haskap berries.
@EllenInEdmonton I never ate the ones in the store here, lol. I got some free cactus pads and started growing them in the back (just for the heck of it), and discovered they grow extremely well and are edible. They have the texture of green peppers with none of the green pepper taste, a very slight bit of sourness to them if not eaten with a sauce/etc. (usually can't taste it with sauce).
@ai6yr
Like I said, I'd definitely try them if they grew in my environment. Local food is a fabulous thing. I miss fresh tropical fruits since returning to Canada, and I missed Canadian berries when I lived in Asia!

@ai6yr

I love how what us Americans call a calorie is actually a kcal, meaning k as in thousand.  So if you say you eat 2,000 calories per day, what you're actually saying is that you eat 2,000,000 calories per day.

@plutarch @ai6yr

Hush! That this is not widely known is how I can excuse my beer and icecream habits by comparing temperatures! 🀣 Also why pizza demands cold beer.

@plutarch @ai6yr

while mine was based on 1 cal to move 1 cc 1℃ and had one publisher, the sort who'd hit the hotel gym first, completely befuzzled until (next morning) I explained kCal. But no matter, perhaps I can just switch to the REAL beer diet:

https://www.menshealth.com/weight-loss/a19532411/the-beer-diet/

The Beer Diet!

J. Wilson decided to abstain from solid food, choosing instead to drink nothing but beer and water for 46 days. Men's Health catches up with him to see how his body is holding up" />

Men's Health
@ai6yr Fairly comparable to a potato, it sounds like.
@ai6yr I just think of Baloo and Mowgli dancing in the "Bear Necessities" 😁 🐻

@ai6yr

I've eaten the fruit from outside, but not the pads. I have eaten the pads from restaurants and the grocery store.

@ai6yr @User47 I used to pick the young pads in my garden in spring. I liked them grilled.