Cactus Curiosities

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(Kovas writing…) In the dry rural parts of Ethiopia we have seen many different cacti. They are diverse and interesting plants! Some looked and grew as tall as trees because they had one main stem and many branches that grew up. Others had big thorns and were dark green in color. The ones that we mostly saw driving to the eastern city of Harar grew to waist height, were light green, and had groups of many small thorns. Unfortunately, I accidently touched these little groups of thorns. If this happens to you, you will find three or four small, yellowish thorns stuck on your finger. You will feel a small sting, look at your finger and take out the thorns. Then, the place where the thorns had been will start to itch and feel very uncomfortable.

We cut open a cactus to see if there was water inside, but found that there was only a moist, green slush inside this species. Our driver told us that the purpleish bulb found on the cactus plant was the edible part. We found a bulb and cut it off. With a jackknife my dad did his best to shave off the thorns from the soft bulb. Then he cut it in half to find a dark purple inside with many seeds. Most of the family tried it. Being the hungriest I ate the most. It tasted like a mixture of a pomegranate and a raspberry but with many, many seeds. As the taste went into our mouths, we uncomfortably noticed that some thorns did as well. My dad joked that adding to the weird sensations experienced in Ethiopia is the lingering feeling of cactus needles stuck on your tongue - ouch!

We have seen many uses for the cacti. We saw these bulbs being sold at the market as food. We have also seen many cacti being used as fences. Some people did go through the hassle of getting the little water out of the very spiky cacti. Of course, the most common use of the cactus was shade. Life in the desert makes people resourceful - what’s next - cactus candy?

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