View attachment 517 View attachment 517 We have several of cactus "weeds" growing in our property. They fruit in autumn/ fall. The skin is very prickly and stingy. We use fork and knife to cut through the soft and ripened fruit. And then, scoop the juicy flesh with a dessert spoon. We, sometimes, add the scooped flesh into a smoothie mix with green apples, papaya, blueberries and other fruit we fancy drinking with prickly pear smoothie.
@Avigail David, thank you for posting that photo of the prickly pear cactus. Now I remember seeing that type of cactus here. In fact, I have a photo, from what I remember. Just give me time so I would remember where exactly is that. However, what I saw was only the cactus and sans the fruit. This is the first time I have seen a fruit like that. It reminds me of our dragon fruit which is also a cactus with a fruit that is succulent. Can you eat the fruits like that or do you have to cook it?
While on my trip to Greece, I have seen those growing. I even took a few photos with my phone, a cat was hiding under them because of the harsh sun there.
Unfortuneately, I cannot think of anything to compare the taste to. All I know is that all 4 of us kids loved it and could not wait until the little fruits would ripen so we would have more of it.
Toward the end of prickly pear season when the fruits were not so abundant, my mom would just half her recipe. I am sure that you can 1/4 the recipe to make just a smaller batch of jelly to try.
We used to get prickly pears in East Africa. People would sell them from big sacks by the side of the road and they are really thirst-quenching on a hot day (as just about every day was). The only drawback was those vicious little spines on the fruits...they seemed to stick in your fingers for days.
I never even knew that it was possible to do such a thing with cacti! It's amazing that such prickly plants can make such delicious sweets!
This prickly pear is now a puzzle to us. My husband and I are both sure that we have taken a photo of that prickly pear cactus in one of our vacations. I remember shoooting the camera with my husband playfully posing by the cactus that is taller than him. And after the shot, my husband commented that it is an edible cactus. The succulent part is made into a dish of seafood. Until now we are still on the hunt of that missing photo. I really cannot remember what place it was taken but it was last year.
This just came across my desk, so I had to share, in case anyone is interested. Raw foods scare me, but the color certainly is divine: http://nouveauraw.com/raw-recipies/ice-creams/prickly-pear-ice-cream/
@Diane Lane, that ice cream looks more like our dragon fruit than a prickly pear. I don't know prickly pear, not a hint that it can be eaten although my husband had already mentioned that it is edible. Now, here is the puzzle. This thread reminded us of a picture of my husband with a prickly pear cactus. We had gone to a more likely it is in a resort, a beach resort maybe. But until now, we cannot place it where and worse, we cannot find that particular picture. It was shot just recently, not more than 3 years ago. Maybe we have been traveling too much and too often that our memories get jumbled.
Prickly pear cactus is supposed to be very good for your health. In Marukai Wholesale Mart near where I live on Oahu they have the juice of the prickly pear cactus and wow is it expensive! On sale it's $79.00 for a quart size bottle! It's supposed to cure diabetes 2. I guess it's alright if you make jams and jellies all the time to make it from prickly pear cactus. One of the videos I saw of an Indian woman making jams and jellies she said you've got to be very careful when you pick the cactus for the thorns are very huge and will hurt you if you pick it the wrong way. I never made homemade jams or jellies. I always buy the sugar free jams and jellies from Walmart.