It tastes like watermelon.  The ripe fruit of the prickly pear cactus, that is.  Once you navigate past the long nasty spikes on the pads, avoid the insidiously small painful needles on the fruit, then find your way around seemly hundreds of seeds to, finally, the red pulp, it tastes like watermelon.  I imagine one gets better at handling the fruit over time, but I got stuck more than once. Tongs, I am told, are your friend.  If you are interested in watching the process, check out this on-line video.

It was during a recent trek to the desert that this Midwest gal discovered that the fruit of the prickly pear cactus is edible.  With stinging nettle under my belt (previous post), why not cactus?  Well, I made it to the pulp but not without a few choice words. The thought of cleaning enough fruit to actually make anything made my skin hurt, so instead I bought a jar of prickly pear jelly and enjoyed the fruit of another's labor.  

The cactus, Opuntia, is called nopal in the Mexican culture and the fruit is known as the tuna. The paddles, or nopales, are edible and sold in marketplaces with their spines removed. I have enjoyed nopales as a side dish and even a taco filling, but consuming the fruit was a new experience. 

 

This is an illustration blog, so I am including a sketch. I used the juice of the fruit to add a pop of color. The prickly pear cactus depicted was often used as a refuge by the lizard my dog adopted as a playmate. Luckily no dog noses were pierced on this trip. 

 

 

I went to Scotland yesterday.  Earlier in the week I visited Belfast.  
I did both without leaving my chair.  A friend sent me a link, and suddenly I was attending a wedding on the Loch Finlaggan.  The wedding of pattern designer and writer Katie Davies featured her beautiful handmade knitwear, not to mention a clever button bouquet.  Take a visit and scroll through the beautiful photography and don't miss the post about her potato-loving dog.

On Sentimental Stitch, Irish textile artist Gemma Walters showcases her hauntingly beautiful reproductions of the pockets 18th century women wore under their many layered skirts.  Embellished with embroidery and faux stains and wear, she gives us an intimate glimpse back into time.

Paris anyone?  Let transplanted Carol Gillott take you on an exploration of the treasures of the City of Light on Paris Breakfasts. Hint: arrive at Notre Dame early to avoid the crowds.

Are you interested in New Zealand women filmmakers? Then check out the Wellywood Woman blog.  On Instagram you'll find Creative Muslim Women.  It features one of my favorite tag lines,  "May take time to load due to high amounts of awesome."

What is it like to be a Navajo woman in the modern world?  Read what Jaclyn Roessel has to say at Grownup Navaho. Her eloquent post about the recently tainted waters of the Animas River will bring it home for you.

Log onto A Mermaid's Tale and Christine will let you peek into her shop and all around Cornwall. This beautiful blog transports you into picturesque English gardens and arts. Her seashell collages and sedum arrangements will have you smelling the salt air.

And then there is the blog by an Australian artist who fell in love with Iceland and moved there.  She documented her new life and art until the posts stop in late 2014 with no explanation.  I'll go back from time to time to check on her.

Many blogs by woman feature their dogs so why should mine be any different?  The image above is of Mose.  This picky guy would not eat a potato (unless you smothered it in cat food).

Happy exploring!

 

Wishing all a fun Fourth of July!

Hendrix Prints

Meet author/illustrator John Hendrix.  I had the privilege on Saturday at a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI-MO) speaker event.  Humor is not only found in John's art and writing, it was an integral part of his presentation as well.  He informed and entertained the crowd.

John shared not only his experiences in children's book publishing but also as an editorial artist.  He has worked for the New York Times and Sports Illustrated among others.  Prints of his work were for sale with more available on his website.  His children's books include both fiction and non-fiction titles and are filled with exquisite detail.

One of Hendrix's most recent projects is his Drawing is Magic sketchbook, a fun interactive book about "falling in love with drawing."  It begins with "Hello. My name is JOHN, and I love to draw."  It is our good fortune he does.

You can read more about this home-town guy here.  Inspired by his button hand-out, I am off to draw...

We are several weeks into our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) session for this year.  Among the vegetables, relishes and grains received so far, there have been a few surprises.  The pickled green strawberries were tasty despite their chewy texture, but first on my list of the head scratchers has to be the stinging nettle. 

Also known as urtica dioica, the common nettle is a perennial flowering plant with stinging hairs on the leaves and stems.  These trichomes inject histamine and other chemicals into the skin producing a stinging sensation and often a raised rash.  Despite this, the plant has a long history of medicinal uses and as a food source.

My bag of stinging nettle came with a warning label and a recipe for Stinging Nettle Pesto.  After checking the internet I learned there were indeed people who ate stinging nettle for cooking destroys the unpleasant properties.  As no recent news reports of death due to the ingestion of stinging nettle came to mind, I was game. 

Here is the recipe provided by my CSA.  While cooking the nettles neutralizes the sting, the hairs are still visible.  This can be a tad alarming.  I blanched longer than the 10 seconds stated just to be sure.

   Stinging Nettle Pesto

   1/3 C pistachios, toasted
   1 tsp salt
   1/4 tsp black pepper
   1 C spinach leaves or basil leaves
   2 C stinging nettle leaves, blanched and squeezed dry
   1 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
   6-8 cloves garlic, chopped
   1/2 C grated pecorino (optional)


   Instructions:

1.    To blanch the stinging nettle leaves,
      bring a pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
2.    Wear gloves when handling the raw leaves and prepare an ice bath.
3.    Cook the leaves for 10 seconds then shock the leaves in an ice bath.
4.    Strain the leaves and squeeze dry.
5.    Place all ingredients (except the olive oil) in the work bowl
      of a food processor.
6.    Pulverize the items then slowly drizzle in the olive oil.

After following the recipe directions (with just a few substitutions), I am happy to report that stinging nettle can indeed be a tasty meal.

Bon Appetite!

Most of all the other beautiful things in life
come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds.
Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers
and sisters, aunts and cousins, comrades and friends—
but only one mother in the whole world. 

 ~KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN

This week marked the passing of five years since the BP oil spill that forever changed our Gulf Coast.  The image above was done for a clean-up fund raising event sponsored by the St. Louis Artists Guild.  My piece featured a quote by marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson.  The entire quote appears below.

“It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life.  But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”

RACHEL CARSON, The Sea Around Us  (1951)

Rachel Carson's work helped inspire the grassroots environmental movement of the 1960s that led to greater environmental controls. Our diligence must continue.

Happy Earth Day.