Highlands is covered with these:
Prickly pear! And since one of our favorite restaurants offers a couple of delish prickly pear cocktails made with the fruit (those red things!) we figured we could harvest some ourselves. I bought a food mill, and we have researched how to go about making the pulpy juice. I found a humorous and informative How-To here.
And last weekend we harvested some from around the property. We have so much of it, but we have to trek through lots of scrub and tall grass and it was getting pretty hot up there - so we settled for a small amount to start. Along the way we saw evidence that deer apparently love to eat it, too. I managed to get some of the very fine stickers in my fingers even though I was super careful! As of today, they are still intact, in the fridge, because I have a million things to do on my list today. But I have a couple of days off this week, so when and if I make the pulp, I'll post the results!*
Gina
*never did have any success with this so now I just enjoy the prickly pear for what it is - a pretty catcus that blooms in the summer (:
3 comments:
Hi Gina!
So nice to see this post about prickly pear fruit. My husband actually bought two home from the produce store recently. They have been in the crisper drawer since.
Fun popping in to visit with you!
Kindly, Lorraine
How fun to be able to harvest them from your own property.
I used to grow prickly pear cactus, but never did anything with it. I'll be interested in seeing how you make the pulp and what you do with it.
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