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Incredible cactus: Prickly Pear Festival highlights the cacti and its edible parts
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Throw a rock in New Mexico and you will most likely hit a prickly pear cactus.
The plentiful and beautiful cacti, also known as nopales, produce a sweet and bright ruby fruit that sprouts from hearty, fleshy pads that can be used as a vegetarian substitute for meat in tacos and other Mexican dishes. The prickly pear fruit, which is also referred to as the “tuna,” has been turned into jams, syrups, liqueurs and more.
The Prickly Pear Festival celebrates the cactus and all of its incredible and edible parts. The event celebrates its sixth annual festival from 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Gutiérrez-Hubbell House, 6029 Isleta Blvd. SW.
“It’s usually been a one-day event and this year we’re also doing an evening event on Friday, Sept. 27,” said Will Thomson, event organizer. “That’s a bit more geared toward music and performance, but with vendors selling foods, prickly pear food and drink.”
“Prickly Nights,” on Sept. 27, will feature music by Basilaris and Lara Manzanares, as well as a performance from the National Institute of Flamenco Company. Live music will also be part of the Sept. 28 festivities.
“We started in 2019, and this kind of came out of conversations with our partners over at the Three Sisters Kitchen, thinking of ways to encourage folks to eat and use more native and sustainable plants like prickly pear,” Thomson said. “And so we started the festival. For three years, we did it Downtown, near and kind of in collaboration directly with (Three Sisters Kitchen). And then three years ago, we moved it out to the Gutiérrez-Hubbell House, which has been a great partner as well. Every year we have cooking demos using prickly pear beverage demos, a full vendor market with all kinds of prickly pear products, music, and then we also have some prickly pear-themed arts and crafts.”
For the past couple of years, the festival has held a cochineal dye workshop, which is an old way of dyeing fabric using an insect that grows on prickly pear cacti. The workshop, being held from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 28, will be led by Gutiérrez-Hubbell House contributor, Kayln Finnell. Participants will dye fabric together with cochineal insects, which have been harvested for dyeing for centuries.
Stretch your legs on Sept. 28, during acequia walks starting at 10:30 a.m. The walks run every half hour through 2:30 p.m. The Center for Social Sustainable Systems will head the educational walk along the Pajarito Acequia. Key issues related to the vital irrigation system and the community will be discussed. The Pajarito Acequia is an essential part of the larger acequia network in the South Valley, according to the event website.
Amber Benson, with New Mexico State University’s extension office, will host “Preserving Prickly Pear: Red Chile Prickly Pear Jam & Pickled Nopales,” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sept. 28. It is a presentation on the water bath canning process and an overview of different methods of home preservation focused on the prickly pear cactus. Participants will be able to taste prickly pear jam and pickled nopales.
“Prickly Pear Cocktails & Mocktails” will be held from noon to 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 28. Safe House Distilling Company and Sugar Moon Syrups will teach attendees how to make refreshing prickly pear cocktails and mocktails.
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“We just want to show people that there’s all kinds of stuff you can do with prickly pear,” Thomson said. “People have become familiar with getting a prickly pear margarita, but you can use it in so many different ways and it’s native to our region. It’s a very sustainable thing to grow and so we want to encourage more people to eat it, use it.”
Inside the Gutiérrez-Hubbell House, there will be programming for farmers, ranchers and gardeners including “Best Prickly Pear Varieties to Grow in Central New Mexico” from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sept. 28. It will be led by former ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden curator and local prickly pear expert, Dave Ferguson, and focus on species of prickly pear that are best suited to grow in this part of New Mexico.
“In addition to encouraging folks to eat more prickly pear and use it more in their day to day, we also want to have some encouraging farmers, ranchers and gardeners, to incorporate them into their systems,” Thomson said. “We’ve got someone from the New Mexico Farmers’ Market Association, talking about some certifications you can get as a farmer, specifically talking about specialty crops like prickly pear and talking about some of the best prickly pear varieties to grow in our region. And then someone from the Southwest Seed Partnership talking about native seeds.”
