This is the time of year the prickly pear fruits (tunas) are ripe . . all along the sides of many of the highways, and some empty lots are just full of them. Lots of people have cactus all over their land and most people detest them. We have very few cactus and kinda wish we had more . . especially this time of year.
A friend has a ranch with tons of prickly pear. Last year, he picked several boxes full of prickly pear for us. This year, he kept saying “want more?” but the timing just hasn’t been good with the health issues I’ve been having. Yesterday I was taking a nap and I heard the phone ring . . and then I heard Vince say “Sure, we’re home, come on over!” I’m thinking . . I feel terrible, the house is a disaster and someone is coming over so I got out of bed and Vince said the friend was bringing over prickly pear. I didn’t want to deal with it but I knew I’d be happy to get them.
Prickly Pear
Yes, those are tomatoes from the garden too! Thank goodness the guy only brought over one five gallon bucket of tunas. But then Vince went out to our few plants and picked another half bucket.
Thank goodness for the Mehu Liisa steam juicer. It’s another one of those fairly expensive gadgets but it makes this kind of job so easy. Some of my kitchen gadgets I don’t use real often but when I need them, I am so happy to have them!
Steam Juicer
Crazy me . . I was thinking I’d fill 3 half gallon jars but we ended up with a bit more.
Prickly Pear Juice
Vince had already taken some of the juice to the fridge but we ended up with almost 5 gallons of juice. Some will be made into jelly. Some will be made into syrup. Some will be left as juice and frozen or canned.
Tracy says
I was able to get 5 pounds of tunas from my CSA this year. I didn’t cook them, but put them in the Vitamix and then strained the puree three times. It yielded 3 cups of juice. I made freezer jelly, just put it in to freeze yesterday. It was the first time I’ve tried this method. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the inspiration!
Katie Z. says
Judy, thank you again for discussing all your canning, etc., exploits. I bought a juicer last year and made my husband so happy with the amount of gloriously clear apple cider I canned for him. I am sitting in the kitchen at the moment, waiting for my first batch of chicken stock to be ready to remove from the pressure canner. I need the freezer space, so I’m looking forward to canned broth and one more skill under my belt. Thank you!
pdudgeon says
so what does the juice tast like?
Diana says
I absolutely love my steam juicer ! I did peach juice so I can make jellies later on .. I have done grape juice from it also, as well as plum juice,apple juice . I think I will go collect prickly pears this weekend !
Hope you are doing better every day!
Daryl says
Have you tried dyeing yarn with prickly pear cactus juice? I did a few years ago. See the yarn here:
http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/2011/09/yarn-dyed-with-prickly-pear-cactus.html
I knit a scarf from it here:
http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/2012/06/garter-knit-baktus-scarf.html
And a second dyeing made a lighter pink here:
http://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/2011/10/second-yarn-dyeing.html
JudyL says
I have not. There are too any pretty yarns out there to buy and I don’t have time to do a whole lot more than I do now but if ever I run out of things to do, I’ll remember that! 🙂
Denise :) says
I had to laugh . . . honestly, the only other place I’ve ever heard of prickly pears is in Disney’s “Jungle Book” — Baloo sings: Now when you pick a pawpaw / Or a prickly pear/ And you prick a raw paw / Well, next time beware / Don’t pick the prickly pear by the paw / When you pick a pear try to use the claw! Haha! Did you use a claw to pick your prickly pears?!?! 🙂