We’ve planted a line of prickly pear on the hillside in front of the house. They have to be the easiest of things to plant – just snap a leaf off a large plant and stick the cut end in the ground. Traditionally here it is planted along boundaries to keep livestock in and they are pretty formidable, growing up to 5m tall.
On our first visit to Andalucía we saw a woman on a street corner in Coín selling the red prickly fruit. In one deft movement of her knife she sliced the skin and peeled it back to reveal the fruit. Wish I’d been brave enough to try one!5 to remember
la línea – boundary line
el ganado – livestock
espinoso/a – prickly
la chumbera – prickly pear [plant]
el cuchillo – knife
And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
We’ve planted a line of prickly pear on the hillside in #Spain via @Spanish_Valley http://wp.me/p3dYp6-ds
We did the same – and boy do they grow fast!
Some of the market stalls around here sell the prickly pear fruits (they are known as chumbos here), but we found the pretty tasteless. You need to handle the fruits with great care as those tiny spikes are lethal! 🙂
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Maybe chumbos is the andaluz name.
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Yes, probably.
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Never knew about the boundary thing – makes sense. Foolish friends, despite warnings, have attempted to ‘pick’ them!
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Ouch! SD
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