Preserving Wild Foods

One of my goals is to learn how to recognize and preserve wild/natural foods.  An easy one is the Prickly Pear Cactus.  Other than the poky spines on them, the cactus pads and purple "tunas" are edible.  Nopalitos (cactus pads cut into strips or diced) and Tunas (made into jelly or dehydrated).  According to information I found online, tunas are similar to Kiwis, in that their taste is relatively neutral and bland.  I've heard the taste described as a cross between a mild bubblegum, watermelon rind and cucumber taste.  Not bad, not sweet, but blah.  They do make good jelly though.  I plan to dehydrate some this weekend, and see if they are good to bake in muffins or cookies. 

Here is the process that I went through today (in pictures):
 


25 lbs of tunas

one tuna

The ends cut off the tunas, and litle hairy spines scrubbed off...

Fruit on the left, peel on the right.  These come right off using the paring knife
and following the line of the peel that surrounds the fruit

Straining the juice to remove pulp and seeds



Finished product



After completing the jelly I have 12 pints and one quart size jar half filled with jelly.  I'll use the quart jar first.  I have a lot of tunas left, and I am going to try to dehydrate them tomorrow.  I have WAY too much jelly.  I've made strawberry, wild mustang grape and now prickly pear jelly.  I may decide to make more and sell it, but we'll see.

PH came home today with a trailer load of coastal hay bales for the livestock.  He was given 100, but only 60 fit on the trailer, so he'll get the rest later.  This is a HUGE blessing.  Right now we have sufficient grass and brush for the goats and horses, but in the Winter we normally have to buy hay in December, and sometimes January.  This amounts to about 20 bales.  We have 5 times that now!  With the drought we are in, this hay is a sure way of God's provision. ;-)

I've also been praying for a male Rottweiler.  We've bred Rotties for over 20 years, but currently only have one 5 year old female.  We are looking for a specific style and look, so not any Rottweiler will do, but Baeta is getting older, and has only had one litter.  This litter sired by our Pyr.  Today on the way home from the small town where we went to Ace Hardware, we noticed a small black and tan dog on the side of the road.  PD#1 said it was a Rottie pup.  Both PH and I said not true, it was just a black and tan dog.  PD#1 convinced us to go back and look.  Sure enough it was a Rottweiler pup.  It's ears are a little fluffy, so it is probably a mixed breed, but other than the tail needing cropping, it is a Rottweiler male.  LOL  All I could do was laugh.  God answered my prayer, but I should have been more specific. LOL  We picked him up and now we have about an 8 week old Rott mix pup named Duke.  I'll post a picture of him tomorrow.  I'll give him the 7 way shot tomorrow, worm him, and call the vet to see about getting his tail cropped.  If nothing else, he'll make a good guard dog to add to the homestead.  Rottweilers are always a great visual deterrance ;-)

I was able to pick up 4 cases of pint jars today at Ace.  They were having a sale that was 2 cases for $11.00.  Since normally each case is $10.99, this was almost buy one get one free.  I was excited.  I also purchased 4 boxes of replacement lids, and a bottle of powdered pectin.  I've never used this kind, only the gel in the pouch, but it is the Ball brand, and is supposed to make more than the pouch does.  22 pints vs. 12.  I'll try it and see.  I do need to stock up on some more pectin.  I have one box of the pouch pectin, and now this bottle, but I like to keep it on hand. 

PH received a bonus from his employer and it is sufficient to complete the entire first floor decking of the house.  Another huge blessing!  Praise God!  We are sufficiently stocked up with food, though there are a few items I could get, but I will continue using his regular paycheck for that.  I don't want to take any of this windfall away from the house.  The sooner it gets done the better.  We desperately need a bigger place to live.  If I end up living in a shell, I'll be fine with that, as long as, the outside is complete.

The local library was also having a book sale.  I was able to get another copy of "Where there are no doctors".  The copy I ordered from Amazon was in sad shape, though it has proved useful.  I also was able to get a copy of the Sheep Raisers Guide for $1.00.  We don't have sheep, but have talked about it recently, so I picked up the book just in case.  I was also able to get several nice art books with classical masterpieces in them for our Art Study for school, plus books on WWII, The History of Scotland, The History of England and a book on Celtic life.  (My family orginated in Scotland so I tend to lean towards that type of stuff, in addition to American History and Government).  PD#1 found a brand new looking horse training book by John Lyons and PD#2 found a Dr. Seuss reading workbook with stickers in tact.  She was thrilled. 

All in all today was a good day.  We were able to add to our preps, plus get a few good books for our homeschool studies.  Pretty cool...

Next on my wild foods list is to make Mesquite jelly (more jelly - sigh) or Mesquite flour.  Plus, I'd like to harvest several cat tails from the pond to see how to prepare them, and how they taste.  We've already harvested and cooked a bull frog, and a rattlesnake, so we've done pretty good so far in finding different wild foods to add to our pantry and/or ability to survive from.  (Here lately the rattlesnakes are getting fewer and far between.  A mixed blessing.  I am glad they are not plentiful, don't want to get bit, but then there aren't any to eat) ;-)