u/butterflygirl1980

Haworthia comptoniana. She gets a lot of sun there, resulting in some fabulous stress color.

They’re not actually a matched set — different hallmarks, both Navajo artists. Sterling silver, spiny oyster and opal. Easily worth $100 or more each. Chain wasn’t included, but I had one already.

They are not actually a matching set — different hallmarks, which Google was actually able to match. The earrings are by Larry Martinez-Chavez, and the pendant by Albert Francisco. (Chain was not included.)

A little specialty of mine, made from the plains prickly pear that grows wild here in Colorado.

1 quart prickly pear juice*
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup lime or lemon juice (I prefer lime)
1 package LOW SUGAR pectin.

Mix pectin with a half cup of sugar. Pour juices and pectin mixture into a large pot and bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Add remaining sugar, and bring to a rolling boil again for about a minute. Remove from heat, ladle into prepared canning jars, and process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Makes seven 8-oz jars.

*The juice can be obtained in a few ways. If you are using large, fleshy prickly pears, like the commercially grown ones, you can run them through a food mill, juicer or blender and then strain through a mesh strainer. If you are using smaller prickly pears like mine that are more seeds than pulp, or if you don’t have the above equipment, halve or quarter them and place them in a saucepan with not quite enough water to cover. Cook them down over medium heat for about 15 minutes, smash them well with a potato masher, then pour it all out into a colander that’s been lined with a few layers of cheese cloth and placed over a bowl. Let it drain well, and squeeze well when it’s cool enough to touch to get as much liquid out as possible.

If you don’t want to go right into making jelly, the juice can be frozen for later use.

One more thing — Prickly pears should be scrubbed and rinsed to remove the fine spines and any dirt before juicing. Wear an apron and heavy duty kitchen gloves while you do this!

I got the half-n-half one at a plant show over a year ago; the other two are recent finds in the Walmart shipments. Side question, do Gymnos ever grow much of a root system? Even the older one, which has been growing and even blooming for me, doesn’t have much.

FYI, this pack cost over $200 new, and still runs $80+ on eBay etc. And that’s usually without the water reservoir and rain cover – – both of which mine has!