This entry involves the rather massive pancake prickly pear cactus that calls our side of the alley way home. It's different than the native prickly pear in that it is MUCH larger in every way, it's not a native cactus. Some of the paddles are larger than a large skillet... or a large pancake that might come from that skillet. Hence the name. Anyway, the last month or so it has been producing large blooms or roses on a daily basis. The days before they bloom the bud will turn bright pink. Each bloom only lasts one day beginning in the morning with a light golden yellow color and magically changing to an orange color then sometimes, but not every time, finishes off the day in a brilliant pinkish hue.
As I mentioned above this cactus is not usually found in this region but in the neighboring Sonoran Desert which is mostly in Northern Mexico and Southern Arizona. Around the first week of September, at least that is when it happened last year, the "apples" which the blooms come out of, having matured all summer, will turn bright red, then purple. This would be harvest time. I tasted a few last fall and they remind me of watermelon, but these guys are almost ALL seed! We are going to use them this year to make prickley pear syrup and jelly which are popular in fine establishments all over the South West. Here's a closer morning shot of several of the blooms and you can already see them turning orange.
(special thanks to my brother Nathan for the photos)
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