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 There are two ways that prickly pear propagate. The slow way is by seeds, which birds and animals help spread by eating the fruits and leaving the seeds behind in their waste. If you have a cactus in your yard you want to propagate, and have more decorum than your average javelina, you can also do it by removing and planting one of the pads. You'll want to let the pad "cure" for some weeks before planting, forming a callous on the clipped-off end, then place that end shallowly in the ground. (For more detailed tips on how to plant the pads, visit www.sfc.ucdavis.edu) The pads, the fruit, and even the flowers of the prickly pear are edible. You can often find the pads in both specialty and mainstream grocery stores around the Southwest, where they're sold under the Spanish name nopales. (When the pads are cut up, rather than whole, they're called nopalitos.) Some people say they taste like green beans, while some assert they taste like asparagus. They're incredibly versatile once they're de-spined and peeled. You can eat the flesh raw in salads, deep-fried to make crispy "cactus fries," or cooked in any variety of ways. (It's helpful to consider how you might use an eggplant - that will give you some guidelines on how to use the prickly pear.) One traditional Southwest favorite is to dice them up and throw them in an egg scramble that may also include chorizo, queso fresco and mild chiles. The fruits offer nearly as many uses, and the flavor is best described as simply "fruity," since it varies depending on the variety of cactus. You can eat them raw, but the most common use is probably to boil them down to create a flavor-rich syrup that can then be used to make candy and jelly. Ancient tradition and modern research reveal a number of surprising uses of nearly every part of the prickly pear. Did you know, for instance, that the sticky juice from inside the pads can be used on burns or minor wounds like you'd use aloe vera gel? Interesting research is also being conducted on the beneficial effect that eating the cactus may have on metabolic conditions like diabetes. In some dairies in Mexico, the pads are fed to the cows for the distinctive and highly marketable flavor it imparts to the milk. The pads can be pounded, dried and woven to create a number of useful items, as the Sinagua people discovered thousands of years ago. Visit the museum at Montezuma Castle National Monument and you'll see sandals, mats and other household items made from cactus fibers. While they don't look particularly useful at first glance, the prickly pear is one of those rare gifts of the desert that supports life in numerous ways in this harsh setting. Article by Sarah Horton  
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