Ridgetop
Herd Master
I think it needs to get to a certain size to bear fruit. Unless you don't want it in the pasture, you can just leave it. The sheep will avoid it. You can pull out the baby plants to keep it contained, or transplant the entire thing to a border fence and let it grow. Since you are familiar with the prickly pear fruit and know how to prepare it to eat it, this would be another natural organic food source for the family. And you wouldnt have to nurse it along like some of the other plants you are growing.
In southern California prickly pear grows naturally in many areas. at our house in CA we had a large stand along the border fence with our neighbor. Th flowers are gorgeous, but I don't know how to prepare the fruit so never picked any.
I have seen the leaves on restaurant menus in the southwest too.
My grandmother knew what to do with them though and my grandfather used to pick them from thir bushes (cacti?) for her to cook. One day when I was 4 or 5 she had a table full and was rolling them between wooden paddles to break off the spines. She told me "Don't touch those" and so naturally I picked one up. LOL I got a handful of hairlike spines which took her an hour to remove with a tweezers. She was not a happy Gammy and I heard many lectures on "contrary children". Luckiy she did not "snatch me baldheaded" - she was from Alabama and that was one of her favorite threats.
I haven't touched a prickly pear fruit since. But I wish I knew how to prepare them.
In southern California prickly pear grows naturally in many areas. at our house in CA we had a large stand along the border fence with our neighbor. Th flowers are gorgeous, but I don't know how to prepare the fruit so never picked any.
I have seen the leaves on restaurant menus in the southwest too.My grandmother knew what to do with them though and my grandfather used to pick them from thir bushes (cacti?) for her to cook. One day when I was 4 or 5 she had a table full and was rolling them between wooden paddles to break off the spines. She told me "Don't touch those" and so naturally I picked one up. LOL I got a handful of hairlike spines which took her an hour to remove with a tweezers. She was not a happy Gammy and I heard many lectures on "contrary children". Luckiy she did not "snatch me baldheaded" - she was from Alabama and that was one of her favorite threats.
I haven't touched a prickly pear fruit since. But I wish I knew how to prepare them.
I am hungry now. In Mexico they are often cut in thin slices and the sautéed with peppers and onion slice, put some refried beans in a tortilla add your nopalitos (that’s what we call them) add some cheese and salsa and you have yourself a delicious tacos. I will say not everyone is a fan of the texture though 
I hope these get bigger. Not sure how long the oldest one has been there because it was already there when we moved here in 2023 but it has grown and then that new one sprouted too. Anything that grows on its own and is not edible we will take! Praise God for bringing forth the fruit of the earth.
) I called for some of my family members to come out to the paddock and help me because I knew I would have to bring Dottie into the shed and away from everybody, but she kept trying to get away. Once we got her into the shed, and I walked around to her backside, I was mentally preparing myself to pull a dead lamb. To my surprise, the lamb was alive!! I took a deep breath and I said “God please help me!”. I feel like no number of YouTube videos can prepare you for real life situations. The adrenaline, the stress of doing it all for the first time feels like a lot at the moment. I was gloved up and went in. I could not feel or find the other hoof leg, went up and over the shoulder from where the other one was and gently pulled then I was able to feel and pull both together (one leg back presentation). Out came the little lamb, a healthy ram lamb. I could not stop praising God. Dottie immediately started cleaning her lamb. Less than 10 minutes later, here comes another one, just sliding right out! Woohoo 
a second ram lamb! Dottie gets both lambs cleaned up, and then they start looking for mom’s teats to get some milk. I stripped each one and made sure things were flowing well on both sides, and lambs began to nurse. We stayed for a good while, got Dottie set up with hay, water, minerals. Cut and dipped umbilical cords. Kicked her rooster friend out of the shed and jugged her in. Made sure she passed all the after birth and that she didn’t have another lamb coming. All is well. My heart is so full. Life is sweet. God is so good. 
