My prickly pear fruit are ripe. They can be picked very carefully with heavy gloves or hot dog tongs, but how do I get rid of the tiny stickers when I try to peel and process them? And are they processed like and other fresh fruit?

-- Arvella Hayes (ARVELLAHAYES@GBSO.NET), January 29, 2000

Answers

I'm glad you asked that, Arvella! We have them growing around here, too, and I've been wanting to make nopales and jelly. (Just found out they are used for cattle feed, too.) My mom grew up in the SW, and always talked about prickly pears, cats claws, and other stuff like that. She neglected to tell me how to prepare them.

Try this site: http://desertusa.com/magoct97/oct_pear.html

It has a good description on how to harvest, prepare, process and also uses for prickly pears. Wish I had personal experience to share, but I will next year!

-- Sylvia (slydy@intrstar.net), January 29, 2000.

This months family circle [feb] has a two page artical on out of the ordinary produce, they say to wear gloves and remove prickers with a vegtable peeler. this artical covers yuca, jerusalem artichokes, chayote among oyhers.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), January 29, 2000.

last word supposed to be others not oythers.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), January 29, 2000.

I have heard that you cook them whole and strain the juice to make jelly, leaving all the stickers behind.Guess you'd have to throw the straing cloth out though. As a side thought, did you know that the great plant breeder Luther Burbank spent years breeding a variety of prickly pear cactus that has NO thorns? After all that work,people really never got very enthused about it. But it sounds like just the thing to make jelly from.I wonder if there's any way to get some of those thornless cactus. He is better known for the Santa Rosa plum and Burbank Russet potato.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), January 30, 2000.

I made prickly pear jelly once---and only once. After picking the tunas, you burn the spines off with a little propane torch or a candle or the burner on a gas stove, etc. Wash, peel, and boil the tunas with about half as much water, strain out the bazillions of seeds, and proceed with pectin like you would with other jelly recipes. One problem, though. I though it tasted horrible; fruity, but really musty, dirty, bitter, and gross. Everyone else thought so too. Good luck, maybe you'll have better results.

-- hannah (hannahholly@hotmail.com), January 31, 2000.

Acording to family circle you can eat the pads of the cactus, pick small to medium ones,peel thorns with veggie peeler and boil or steam 1to2 min until crisp tender, slice or cut into 1/2 inch wide strips and saute in butter, lard or olive oil. Can be used in tacos, enchiladas, rice and beans, or lightly battered and fryed to make fritters, or add salt and pepper and use as side dish.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), January 31, 2000.

I would like to thank everyone for ideas about making from prickly pear fruit. Seems to be a misunderstanding, though. By fruit, I mean the little purple fruits tha appear after the blossoms die, not the cactus pads themselves. (they're only good for animals to eat. They're horrible) I picked one of the fruits for my husband to taste. He wouldn't, until I showed him they were ok to eat. That's when I got the tiny little spines in my tongue. Pain! I used to but the jelly in Phoenix, seems like 100 years ago. I want to make my own. Thanks.

-- Arvella Hayes (ARVELLAHAYES@GBSO.NET), February 02, 2000.

I have made prickley pear jelly a few times, mine doesn't set up very hard tho, not enough pectin maybe. The best advise I could give you is invest in a juicer. It looks like a big soup pot with 2 (I think) compartments in it. One for the fruit and one for the water. You steam the fruit and the juice comes out of a little hose woth a nozzle on the end of it, you need to squish the fruit every once in a while. Then after this is done you only need to strain it thru a few layers of cheese cloth. The riper the fruit the better, it has more natural pectin. Good luck

-- Jana Caldwell (azmod@uswest.net), February 26, 2000.

Arvella, We were in Nevis in the West Indies a couple of years ago & saw prickly pear for the first time. As we have a home based jam making business the locals wanted us to try making the fruit into jelly. We just added some water to the fruit (flowers) and brought to a boil & then simmered. Strain the juice & use it as you would any jelly. It was delicious! I wish I could try it again, but it doesn't grow in Canada. Brenda

-- Brenda Reise (d+breise@northcom.net), February 29, 2000.

I made jelly once with the bloom. Here in Texas it is called a "tuna". I cant remember the recipe, but I do recall that by itself there is not much taste... so you have to add your own flavoring to it. I think I used a Jello base with it. Im sorry I don't recall exactly but I will look around and get back to you on it.I hold them with a shish kabob stick and singe the spines off. Wear gloves, the juice will stain everything red!

-- Carole Hall (carle@earthlink.net), March 07, 2001.

I have a Question. Does anyone know how to germinate a prickly pear cactus from the seed? If you do, could you email me? I am crossing my fingers. julie

-- Julie M Tarver (jmtarv@hotmail.com), September 23, 2001.