Opuntia ficus-indica
For the past 3 weeks, we stayed on a prickly pear farm in Sicilia, near Caltagirone.
Caltagirone is a town located in southeast/east central Sicily, in the province of Catania.
It’s a beautiful town and known for its long history of ceramics production [1].
We were introduced to a lot of information about fruit harvesting, rainwater harvesting, organic farming, permaculture, and managing a farm while staying with our awesome hosts at Caudarella. We weeded, chased chickens, harvested chili peppers and fici d’india, and helped with daily work on the farm.
We will share more on Caltagirone and our time in the Catania region in an upcoming post. But for now, here are some cool facts and a collection of images on the prickly pear – or opuntia ficus-indica:
Prickly Pear, a/k/a:
fico d’india, bastardoni (Italian), tuna (Spanish), nopal (Spanish), barbary fig (English)
Native to Central America, but wild and growing all over Sicilia!
Scientific name:
Opuntia ficus-indica
Location: Azienda Caudarella | Caltagirone, Sicilia
Vida BoriKor 