35 pound crate of opuntia pads... questions

[jsheffield]

Hello TFO,




I found a source online for a crate of 35 pounds of opuntia pads, which is a lot (for me), but it's a reasonable price, and restaurant-quality produce, so I thought I might give it a try.

My question is about preserving, or extending the useful life of, the pads I don't immediately feed to my tortoises... how do you do it?

I've heard of people:

1. leaving them whole in the fridge
2. vacuum-sealing the pads
3. drying them with a food dryer

What has worked for you, and what would you recommend?

Thanks,

Jamie

 

[wellington]

I buy a big crate from a local store. I tried drying them in the oven but they have to be really tiny pieces to dry without it taking forever.
I freeze mine. I never tried freezing them whole. I use the food processor and make slices and bag and freeze.
I also tried the same thing years ago with vacuum sealing then freezing but burnt out 2 sealers. I believe, if my memory is correct, they turned out the same as just freezing them.
They come out a little mushy but the torts don't mind.
Depending on how long you would have to store them for, I know you can just place them in a cool dark place and they will last for some time. I don't know how long or if they change at all.
You can of course plant them.

 

[SinLA]

@Tom has good advice on this...

 

[Tom]

If you leave the pads outside in a well ventilated area at any temperature above freezing, they will last for months. What ruins them is lack of ventilation, like putting them in a fridge. Even stacking them in a cardboard box will make them go bad in a week or two, but if you leave them spread out and open to the air, they will last for months. I set them on top of wire crates in my breezeway and they last a year through freezing winter nights and 110 degree summer days.

 

[wellington]

If you leave the pads outside in a well ventilated area at any temperature above freezing, they will last for months. What ruins them is lack of ventilation, like putting them in a fridge. Even stacking them in a cardboard box will make them go bad in a week or two, but if you leave them spread out and open to the air, they will last for months. I set them on top of wire crates in my breezeway and they last a year through freezing winter nights and 110 degree summer days.

So do they need air all around them to stay good? If laid on something solid, will they go bad or just not last as long?

 

[Tom]

So do they need air all around them to stay good? If laid on something solid, will they go bad or just not last as long?

I've laid them on solid surfaces outside in the breezeway and they last for many months that way, but the concept is to give them good air circulation and they will last a very long time. I piled a bunch of pads in a cardboard box and set them out of the way and a month later some of them were starting to turn to mush.

 

[Len B]

I've laid them on solid surfaces outside in the breezeway and they last for many months that way, but the concept is to give them good air circulation and they will last a very long time. I piled a bunch of pads in a cardboard box and set them out of the way and a month later some of them were starting to turn to mush.

It helps if you separate the stacked pads using something like newspaper. I use the weekly flyers from the grocery store. If you ask they will give you the leftovers from the week before.

 

[jsheffield]

They arrived today... a huge box of fresh, plump, largely spineless cactus pads... I think the box contained over 100 pads.

I unpacked them, rinsed them, then loaded them back into purpose-modified totes I'd set up in advance with lots of holes drilled on all six sides, and spacers to facilitate airflow during their storage.

I cut up a few bruised/torn/damaged ones that I sorted out during my inspection/rinsing process, thinking that these would be the ones that would be first to break down and spoil... I fed them to all of the torts.

Surprisingly, although all of the torts nibbled at them, Aretha was the first tort to clean her plate, finishing them all in a few hours. I assume that there aren't a lot of cacti in Asian mountain forests.

I gave her a couple of whole pads this morning, which she's already gleefully munching her way through.

I was glad to have serious gloves to protect my hands from the nearly invisible spines that were present in the cactus pads.

Jamie