I haven’t been eating our paddle cactus because it’s not a main food for me, but I have been propagating a paddle that fell off and watching the fruits ripen. Our neighbor put out hundreds of pounds of cactus so I thought it was a good time to give it a try. Processing it went okay. Locally we have spineless cactus but once you start touching it you can feel the spines.
Propagating this little fellow
Our lovely, healthy specimen plant isn’t overgrown or terribly crowded so there is no urgent need to harvest paddles. 
My first attempt at incorporating the nopales. Homemade tortillas with refried beans, cheese, and nopales. The nopales were slimy and masked the rest of the flavors. I still had around 14 ounces of cactus left over after this recipe.
For my second attempt I reheated the already cooked cactus by sautéing it in oil with too much spices to compensate for the flavor subduing property of the cactus. Onion, garlic, and cayenne. It was pretty good.
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