Sonoran Desert harvesting is rewarding and fun; a great way to connect with the ancients who also used these plants for food, medicine and more. It connects one to the land and the gifts you reap can be shared with grateful friends and family.
In August we can pull the fruit or “tunas” from the prickly pear cactus.
You know how to make the syrup and the jelly; but how to get the fruit from the cactus?!? Here you go. It is much easier than you might imagine.
You need:
Big glove; preferably elbow- length! BBQ Tongs Non-ridiculous shoe situation (I have collected in flip flops and you WILL get poked) Plastic bags for freezing (I double bag two Target store bags as they are strong and fairly big) Old dishtowel that will get stained by the juice color (magenta!) Cheesecloth (this is usually found at grocery stores near the baking items or near the gravy mixes) Canning equipment
Step I Collecting the tunas
Off you go! Head over to your prickly pear cactus patch and see the fruit, called the “tuna”. Pop them off with your tongs and put into your bag. You want whole tunas with nice red color. Leave some on each cactus for the birds and wildlife – they depend on these too! Do not collect those that have holes or white scale. The holes could mean that bugs are inside and the white scale is actually from the cochlinea bug and you don’t want that in your juice.
Fill one or two or more bags. Two bags of fruit made 4+ flats of jars for jelly and syrup for me.
Place bags in freezer. When frozen (I usually leave them in the freezer for a week) they can be defrosted when you are ready. As they defrost, they melt and dissolve.
Step II
Fill a colander with an old dishtowel then cover that with cheesecloth. Place a bowl under the colander. Pour the tunas into the colander and let them melt. As they are melting, use the back of a big spoon to mash the pulp. You will be able to tell when the tunas are not rendering the juice.
Step III
BOIL the resulting juice and let cool. You can run this through the cheesecloth again if you can see any spines left in the juice but they should have melted during the boil. I then can that boiled product as my “syrup” into small 1/2 pint jars and then label. If you want to make jelly, you use this same syrup.
This year we are only canning the syrup as we use it more than jelly. Here are the ways we love it;
Lemonade with prickly pear syrup Add 1-2 shots to a pitcher of lemonade- kids and adults love the pink color. Prickly Pear Margaritas Add 2 shots of prickly pear syrup to; 1 can of beer 1 can frozen limeade or frozen margarita mix 1 can (emptied by the limeade) tequila loads of ice
Put in blender and go wild.
Enjoy your harvest!