Comments on: A New Ingredient: Prickly Pears

By: Prickly Pear Jelly – When Life Gives You Prickly Pears, Make Jelly! | Every Day Southwest

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:58:32 +0000

[...] lots of adventurous stuff out there in the bloogsphere! Hank of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook made prickly pear syrup that sounds amazing on a stack of pancakes. I found prickly pear snow cones over at Bluebonnets and [...]

By: Jaesi

Jaesi — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 01:18:18 +0000

Sounds like a good syrup recipe, but man that is a lot of pricklys to pick. I just wanted to add that with, what, fifty seeds in each pear, they are edible. You can grind them into flour, though not gluten-producing flour. But hey with pectin in the fruits and flour from the seeds, you can make cactus pie

By: Swamp Thing

Swamp Thing — Sat, 15 May 2010 23:30:42 +0000

Out here, prickly pears only grow on beach dunes…I’ve eaten them carefully with a knife, but with this knowledge in hand I look forward to doing something more useful with them!

I’m in my 5th year of growing/preparing elderberries. Made wine in 2008 – very bitter! But as it turns out, a PERFECT marinade for any red meat or wild game.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:36:00 +0000

I went fishing for prickly pears last fall with my family, picking the fruit with a homemade contraption of a long pole attached to a can. After we picked a few piles we removed the glochids by threshing them with weeds and then later at home washing them down with a strong stream of water. I made prickly pear pie with them, flavored with almonds.
I agree with you that the syrup which I made from it (mine was orange and not magenta) was cloyingly sweet. Next time I will add lemon juice to it as you recommend. Thanks for the ideas.

By: Jessa

Jessa — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:14:21 +0000

Prickly pears are excellent with cucumber (in a frozen blender drink with lemon and mint, or chopped together in a light “fruit” salad with honeydew and a citrus vinaigrette).

Mint is generally a good addition, or sage if you’re going savory.

I tried making a cactus pear and lemon verbena jelly a few years back, but cooked it too long and lost a lot of the “good” flavors. I’ll try again someday.

By: hank

hank — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:11:02 +0000

Kevin: Great idea, although I can imagine the looks I’d get wandering into an arid place with a blowtorch looking for cactus fruit. Might be worth it just for the chance of getting arrested…

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:12:37 +0000

I use a blow torch, the kind with a propane bottle. Go over the the fruit first and then pick. Saves a lot of time and not getting stuck so often.

By: Kirsten

Kirsten — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:53:38 +0000

I was so moved by your last post that I couldn’t respond. Glad to see you’re back in the saddle. FANTASTIC POST! And the comments were such a great addition as well! I may have inspired a whole new herd of foragers with this post alone. Thanks!

By: CMBlake6

CMBlake6 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:59:43 +0000

[...] excellent post from there is this: Prickly Pears. We in the southwest know these delightful plants. The main paddle of that cactus is a good food [...]