I can send you pads of Opuntia basilaris v. aurea from east of Cedar City, UT, O. macrorhiza from north of Prescott, AZ and O. basilaris v. brachyclada from San Gabriel Mts, CA. All absolutely frost hardy, when going in winter dry. Jordi

blueiris3 the cactus we traded is flowering and I could not be happier. Thank you so much. Luckynes

The issue I have is whether or not I can use Opuntia pads in place of other low pH ingredients and test the pH of the finished product a couple days later for accuracy and make it using a BWB. Can you? Sure, in theory it should work and obviously commercial canners do it.. But it would be more like making ripe tomato salsa than making green tomato salsa since they at least have a higher pH. Still it would contain no low acid ingredients except the added acid. Should you? That's up to you. As you say, no known tested recipes so it will be a do at your own risk thing. Not recommended, just your personal experiment. I do know that you have to get it below 4.6 and that using bottled lime juice will work better than vinegar for doing that as well as compliment the taste more. You can also use citric acid. But testing just the once a couple of days later probably won't be enough (NCHFP tests repeatedly to plot out when the pH begins to rise and how much) so I'd test again before consuming. Proportions of the ingredients is the real problem. If I were to try it I might be tempted to start with the Choice Salsa recipe on NCHFP and see where that gets you pH wise. Dave PS: of xourse freezing rather than canning would be the best option Here is a link that might be useful: Choice Salsa

This is a trunk-forming Yucca (Y. recurvifolia). The trunks are about three feet high and the leaves add maybe another two feet. When it bloomed in 2008, the flower spikes were about four or five feet more. You said your yuccas aren't so big, but it depends on which ones you have. As I recall you have the variegated types of Y. filamentosa, which doesn't form a trunk at all. Those form clumps over time but stay low to the ground. It's nice if you have some of both the low growing ones and the trunked types. There are some that have narrow leaves and others with various colorations in the foliage, so it's possible to have quite a display made up of nothing but yuccas. I personally like to mix their spikiness with softer growing plants too. However you use yuccas, I think they're great plants.