The History Of Prickly Pear Cactus In Lubbock's Culture

Did you know you can easily grow "tuna" in Lubbock, Texas? You can, but I am of course not referring to the ocean fish that can weigh up to 600 pounds. This tuna is far less fishy.

Prickly Pear's Prickly Past

Referring to the fruit of the prickly pear cactus as "tuna" comes from Spanish colonization of the New World, as settlers adopted the word from Caribbean Taino languages. It has a completely different etymology than the staple fish for sandwiches.

Many native peoples (Apache, Comanche, Navajo, etc.) ate the flesh of the prickly pear either fresh for hydration and vitamins, or had it dried, or even fermented. But prickly pears are even more useful than that, as the plant has medicinal applications, the spines are useful as needles, and it is the host of cochineal insects, still used to this day to make natural red dyes for food and textiles. Neat!

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Growing Prickly Pear Is SO Easy

Of course, you want to avoid poking yourself with the spines. But besides that, these plants are insanely easy and fun to propagate. You simply pick a prickly pear pad by cutting or snapping it at a joint (again, oh so carefully, use very thick gloves) and put the cut end in some decent dirt. I've seen this work many times. However, if you want to bolster your chances that your prickly pear takes off, you can be a little more precise about it. Here's a very nice video about it.

Eating The Tuna

Prickly Pears must be carefully prepared to avoid injuring yourself or others with the glochids (the very tiny spines present on the plant). These need to be burned off over a flame (best practice) or scrubbed vigorously off. Always handle the unpeeled fruit with tongs or a fork.

Then the prickly pear should be peeled. You can eat the fruit raw (but watch out for the hard seeds!), or you can make it into syrups, jellies, etc. Here is another nice video to guide you along.

Enjoy your tuna, Lubbock!