Our nursery is a testimony to our love for cactus and succulents we have one of the largest collections of them in mumbai....they work so well in creating tabletops landscapes and terrariums one of the most easiest plants to maintain iv come to fall in love with this family of plants....as a child one chapter of my favourite cartoon moments was when silvestre or the wolf in road runner or tom from tom and jerry smacked or landed on cacti....jevenile humour yes i know ...but i fell in love with the cacti the plant somehow came across as a symbol of karmic justice to me...hahahha....funny but true...
So when i came across an episode of master chef australia where one of the mystreybox ingredients was "prickly pear" cactus i was beyond thrilled it opened up a whole new world of plants that i just had to eat!!!
So lets dive down to the varieties of plants that you can eat and grow easily in mumbai :-
1) Prickly Pear :-
Commonly called prickly pear, Opuntia ficus-indica is perhaps the most common edible succulent. The name refers to the juicy, reddish-purple fruit that develop atop the leaves in summer. While wholly edible, the fruit is filled with seeds that prove difficult to digest for many people. The flat, spiny pads of prickly pear are also edible and are widely eaten across Latin America as a vegetable called nopales. Both the fruit and pads of prickly pear must be cleaned of their spines before consumption and both can be eaten raw or cooked. However, the pads are more palatable when cooked since they have a slightly soapy taste when eaten raw.
2)Night-Blooming Cereus:-
Night-blooming cereus is the common name for several species of epiphytic cacti within the genus Hylocereus You may commonly know these guys as Bhrama kamal. The plants bear fragrant, showy flowers during the summer months that later develop into edible fruit called pitaya, or dragon fruit. Each fruit is filled with creamy white flesh that has a subtly sweet flavor and scent. Many gardeners grow night-blooming cereus as an ornamental and most will never see a fruit develop, but you can greatly increase the likelihood of the plant developing a fruit if it is kept under warm, bright greenhouse-like conditions.
3)Aloe Vera :-
The clear, mucilaginous sap found inside the leaves of aloe vera plants is widely used as an herbal remedy for skin irritation and burns, but it is also edible and sometimes consumed as a drink to relieve digestive upset. Extracting the edible sap from aloe vera is simple and takes only a knife to cut the leaves lengthwise and a bowl to catch the sap as you squeeze it out. No special preparation is required before consuming aloe vera sap, but its thick texture and slightly bitter taste is unpleasant to many people and can be greatly improved by mixing it with an equal measure of filtered water.
4)Yuccas:-
To the indigenous people of the American Southwest, few plants are as versatile as the yucca. Species such as Spanish bayonet (Yucca baccata) and Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera) are of particular value since most parts of the plants are edible and can be eaten fresh or dried and stored for later use. The young flower stems, fruit and seeds all provide a palatable source of nutrition, and the leaves can be eaten steamed or lightly sauteed when still young and tender. It is best to avoid eating the older leaves and roots of yuccas since they contain a high concentration of saponins, which possess a soapy taste and can cause gastrointestinal upset if eaten in large quantities.
5) Dragon Fruit :- Yes that wildly cool look fruit thats taken the market by storm grows on a cactus,i could go on and on trying to describe the fruit to you but then again we all know what the beautiful dragon fruits taste like. They come in two types one with the red flesh and one with the white flesh .
6)All of the Sedum species (also called "stonecrops") are edible (. They are used in salads and are said to have a sour or peppery taste. Eat these sparingly; some can cause indigestion if eaten in large amounts.
Purslane is my favorite of the edible succulents, being useful as ground cover in moist areas, easy to grow, and quite pretty -- not to mention extremely tasty when cooked.
In the US, purslane is considered a weed, but it is excellent in stews and soups, as well as tasty fried and reasonably good in salads.
Commonly called prickly pear, Opuntia ficus-indica is perhaps the most common edible succulent. The name refers to the juicy, reddish-purple fruit that develop atop the leaves in summer. While wholly edible, the fruit is filled with seeds that prove difficult to digest for many people. The flat, spiny pads of prickly pear are also edible and are widely eaten across Latin America as a vegetable called nopales. Both the fruit and pads of prickly pear must be cleaned of their spines before consumption and both can be eaten raw or cooked. However, the pads are more palatable when cooked since they have a slightly soapy taste when eaten raw.
Night-blooming cereus is the common name for several species of epiphytic cacti within the genus Hylocereus You may commonly know these guys as Bhrama kamal. The plants bear fragrant, showy flowers during the summer months that later develop into edible fruit called pitaya, or dragon fruit. Each fruit is filled with creamy white flesh that has a subtly sweet flavor and scent. Many gardeners grow night-blooming cereus as an ornamental and most will never see a fruit develop, but you can greatly increase the likelihood of the plant developing a fruit if it is kept under warm, bright greenhouse-like conditions.
The clear, mucilaginous sap found inside the leaves of aloe vera plants is widely used as an herbal remedy for skin irritation and burns, but it is also edible and sometimes consumed as a drink to relieve digestive upset. Extracting the edible sap from aloe vera is simple and takes only a knife to cut the leaves lengthwise and a bowl to catch the sap as you squeeze it out. No special preparation is required before consuming aloe vera sap, but its thick texture and slightly bitter taste is unpleasant to many people and can be greatly improved by mixing it with an equal measure of filtered water.
To the indigenous people of the American Southwest, few plants are as versatile as the yucca. Species such as Spanish bayonet (Yucca baccata) and Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera) are of particular value since most parts of the plants are edible and can be eaten fresh or dried and stored for later use. The young flower stems, fruit and seeds all provide a palatable source of nutrition, and the leaves can be eaten steamed or lightly sauteed when still young and tender. It is best to avoid eating the older leaves and roots of yuccas since they contain a high concentration of saponins, which possess a soapy taste and can cause gastrointestinal upset if eaten in large quantities.
5) Dragon Fruit :- Yes that wildly cool look fruit thats taken the market by storm grows on a cactus,i could go on and on trying to describe the fruit to you but then again we all know what the beautiful dragon fruits taste like. They come in two types one with the red flesh and one with the white flesh .
