We ventured out of the garden recently, because it’s September which is when all the prickly pears (tunas) are ripe, and came back with 220 pounds of prickly pears. We peeled them (which takes a long long time as you try to avoid getting any glochids in your hands), juiced them, strained them, strained them a couple more times, cooked them, and then ended up canning a little over 8 dozen jars of prickly pear syrup. * * * The one question we get most is…What do you do with prickly pear syrup? There’s so many delicious ways to use it, but we frequently use it in our beverages. Here’s 5 of our favorite drinks to make with prickly pear syrup in case you ever find yourself with a jar ?: • • 1. make a frozen margarita (use the good tequila) and pour over the top and serve 2. make a frozen limeade and pour on top and serve (similar to above, but kid friendly) 3. squeeze a glass full of texas grapefruit and add a dash on top 4. add a little to a bottle of Topo Chico 5. make a prickly pear smoothie • • Also, don't forget to drink the juice plain (before making the syrup), it's delicious!

A post shared by Gardenkeepr (@gardenkeepr) on Sep 28, 2017 at 5:17am PDT

I first had Julie on the show last year in Episode 2-1. I had known her about six months or so and was intrigued by her garden planner business as well as her garden outside of Austin. Since then, Julie and I have become internet garden friends, exchanging emails and pleasantries via Instagram. I’m constantly intrigued by her foraging efforts and everything she does in her garden! Fast forward to this summer and I invited Julie to come back on the podcast to talk about biodynamic gardening. A series of problems with scheduling and then problems with getting our call to work and record, well, we didn’t get a chance to sit down and talk until recently. All of that worked out for the best! We had a great chat, just talking about various aspects of our gardens—something you might do if you had a friend over to walk about the garden and hang out for the morning!

Don’t forget to submit your “Why” for gardening! See Ep 3-0 for more information! Feel free to drop me an email over there —> on the side bar or sign up for the newsletter above! And if you listen on iTunes or Stitcher, don’t forget to leave a rating and review over there to help the show reach more listeners! Thanks!

Music: “New Day” by Lee Rosevere

Show Notes:
Gardenkeepr.com to stay up to date with Julie’s happenings!
Masanobu Fukuoka
Julie’s Prickly Pear Recipe
Biodynamics
Extinguish Plus Fire Ant Control