Archive | October 2013

Ate my first Peruvian Apple Cactus Fruit

Peruvian Apple Cactus

My Peruvian Apple Cactus with fruit

One of the really fun parts of living in Southern California is the strange tropical fruits you can grow. I recently planted a banana tree and a mango tree. We will see how they do.

Having bought a house with over an acre that had belonged to an avid organic gardener for some 40 years I am occasionally surprised by a new plant or fruit popping up.

There is a cactus garden well off to one side that I had paid very little attention to until the other day when I noticed these big round pinkish red fruits on a tall cactus. Somewhat like a dragon fruit but no pointy things. So I took some pictures and sent them off to a friend in the local chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers.

Oddly enough at the meeting I missed (yes I am a member and love it) someone else had asked the same question.

The answer is that this is a Peruvian Apple Cactus, Cereus repandus. So I immediately googled it and found the wikepedia article and a utube video both of which assured me it was edible.

So I had to try this gorgeous fruit and it was quite delicious.

 

 

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Results for a second cousin on the Skjold line

The results for our second cousin John who shares Skjold and Wold ancestry are just in today at 23andme so of course the first thing I did was compare him to me, my brother, my dad, and a few other cousins. Interestingly John has inherited far more DNA in common with us than our Munson side 2nd cousin has.

Dad shares 608 cM over 25 segments with John and only 389 cM within 18 segments with Dick, our Munson 2nd cousin. My brother shares 281 cM over 13 segments with John as opposed to 155 cM over 7 segments with Dick while I share 282 cM in 15 segments with John as opposed to 175 cM within 10 segments with my Munson 2nd cousin Dick.

Here is a pretty picture I made with my chromosome segment mapper tool:

Our 2nd Cousin on the Skjold line from Segment Mapper

Overlapping DNA from our 2nd Cousin on the Skjold line compared to family with the Segment Mapper

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It’s Pomegranate Season!

Having enjoyed eating pomegranate seeds in my salad at a friend’s birthday dinner, I thought I would try eating the ones growing in my backyard.

pomegraniteSmll My first try colored my cutting board red and much of the floor as well. So I got on my computer and googled “seed a pomegranate without mess” to learn a better approach. Click the read more to see the two techniques I found. I confess that I have converted to the water technique which is amazingly easy.

The seeds are a crunchy, sweet, filling, and very healthful snack. A good source of vitamins K and C as well as potassium and all sorts of anti-oxidants. See this section of the wikipedia article for more in all that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate#Nutrients_and_phytochemicals

 

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