By Jane Grimsrud
Today John and I had the privilege of attending a meeting of a Garden Group led by Ileana Acevedo Vega. Louise Vogel was our hostess.
The subject of today’s meeting was: About “Cactus” (edible cactus in the Yucatan, sharing a brief talk on cactus proprieties as healing alternative medicine, and a demo on cactus-cooking– plus “Canisté” – a sample of a tree under extinction.
Some of the members who attended: Back row: Marie Barchus, Laura Perkins, Louise Vogel, Ileana Acevedo, Cristy O’Neill. Front row: Jane Grimsrud, Laurie Frey and Debi Kuhn. Also attending were John Grimsrud and Sally Wilson.
Louise opened the meeting with a discussion about CANISTÉ, also called yellow zapote.
CANISTÉ is a rare tropical fruit that is in danger of extinction. Louise gave us all seeds to start seedlings.
Sampling CANISTÉ
In photo: Dr. Luis Barrera May and Ileana Acevedo
Dr. Barrera May gave us a very informative presentation about the properties and benefits of nopal cactus.
Laurie Frey won the door prize of a cactus.
Time to prepare and sample the nopal cactus. In photo: Louise, Laura and Laurie.
Ileana Acevedo, group leader and head chef preparing the nopales.
The end product which we enjoyed with fresh hot tortillas and a cool glass of Jamaica.
Some of the happy gardeners: Ileana, Laura, Debi, Louise, Marie and Jane. John also joined in the eating and with comments such as: uhm….good…uhm….another tortilla, por favor.
Thank you Ileana and Louise for a wonderful Saturday.
Tags: Caniste, John M. Grimsrud, Louise Vogel, Merida IWC, nopal, yellow zapote, Yucatan
