Prickly Pear jelly....

Neighbor had a large prickly pear in his cactus garden loaded with pears....he was going to pick and toss them....

SpitFire had other plans.....




Got four gallons of pears off one cactus....

Burned the stickers, cut off the ends and cooked them down...





Add lime juice, sugar, boil and jar.....





We got about two gallons of jelly from four gallons of pears.....made a couple batches with cayenne pepper! AMAZING!

Good stuff and that is a lot of pears from one plant.

That’s awesome!
Bet that is gonna be some good eating, spread on a hot buttered biscuit!

Good to see you back brother.

I wonder if they would make good wine?

Looks great. I never had anything to do with them, just see them eaten by deer and bears in AZ all the time. When you pick them, do they just twist off or do you have to cut them at the base??? Is there a pit, or seeds in the center. Very interesting!!

Nice! I bet that's awesome!

You can twist them off or cut, the inside looks a lot like a pomegranate, the membrane around the hard seeds is filled with sweet juice and the meat is also juicy and sweet.. Picked a couple corn bags full one year while filling feeders, took them to a friend that likes them and got back a couple pints of jelly for my part. Didn't take long to get them with lots like this on the lease.

My baby girl Madi is 7 yrs old and one of her favorite things to do is pick prickly pears. A pair of gloves, tongs, & a bowl.

The rule is grab the pear and give it a little twist. If it is dark purple and twists right off then it's ready - ripe. If you grab one, twist a little bit and it doesn't release....not quite ready. Come back in a week or two.

Nice, I never would have known. We are only down on the leases in the winter, long after they're gone.

If you're interested, we can send you a box of fresh picked pears.

Just say the word. My kids will pick, I will ship.

Good stuff Snake!!

I remember eating them as a kid right off the cactus. The cactus itself is also pretty awesome,never had any jelly though.

SW: Thanks, but probably too expensive to ship. I will certainly keep my eyes open for any of the processed jelly when we are back down there, and give it a try tho. I'm sure my friends in Matagorda and Bay City can find me some, and hold it. Is it a regional thing, or just all over TX where there's pears??

They make an incredible steak marinade.

I haven't tried prickly pear jelly before. There is a place that sells prickly pear pequin jelly that I want to give a try.

Found this on-line, looks like plain jelly. Made in Garland TX. Should be what you prepared, correct?

Man that looks good Jes. Never had it but bet its good

Yup....just grab with tongs twist and pull. I prefer to burn them with a pear burner to remove the stickers before picking. It’s a whole lot easier that way but didn’t think my neighbor would appreciate me torching his in his cactus garden.

Looks like it.....

I ordered a couple to try. Can't wait to see what it tastes like. I'm sure there are recipes with it also!!

X2

As soon as I saw your post I ran out to my Cactus garden to see if my sort of spineless Cactus had any, they are smaller & green in color then turn yellow and fall off. I do not recall if they have ever turned that purple color?

That looks great Guessing it has its own unique flavor/taste is there anything you can compare it with?

Similar to a berry jelly....

Looks great!!

It arrived today, and was exactly as advertised. Packed good and no damage in shipping. I was impressed with the taste too. Kinda like a cross between our huckleberry, a light grape, and pomegranate. Tastes really good, and was excellent on a couple slices of fresh bread!!

Awesome!

I Need to try this. I love homemade jelly and jam. Homemade wild plum is a favorite my Mom used to make. God rest her soul. Took the recipe to the grave.

ttt

Had it a lot as a kid growing up in West Texas. Good stuff.

Shiner used to make a prickly pear beer. I liked it. Haven't been able to find it in a while.

Looks good! We made 62 jars of it also. We picked two 5 gallon buckets full at the deer lease in October. Had to take some tape and wrap our fingers lol to keep the thorns off. My wife used those heat gloves you handle smoked meat with to wash ours in the water, stickers came right off. I diced ours up into quarters before we cooked them, then used a mash tater masher to mush them up while in the water, excreted lots of juice. I sent several jars to the Lady who owns our lease and gave some away but we plenty until this coming season.

I just made my first batch. I wish I had seen this thread first. In any event I'll share. I used cotton gloves and the microscopic spines went right through them- My hands looked like I was a porcupine. Used a tweezer to pull them out and took quite a while. In any event the hot dog thongs became my go to tool. Both to hold while picking and later, I used a propane torch to burn the spines- pear by pear. One recipe I had seen said to pick 27 pears but they seemed sort of small so I picked 50 which I'm glad I did. I cut them up into chucks and boiled maybe a half hour- using a potato masker to break them up. The recipe I had from the net was 3 cups of juice 4 and half of sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice and a 1.75 ounce packet of sure-jell.
I used a pasta strainer to strain out the large pieces, then a mesh "spider" to strain out smaller pieces, then cheese cloth twice. I boiled the whole pears- I didn't peel them. I cut off the outer end and then cut lengthwise but when I tried peeling there didn't seem to be a skin, I'd be taking a lot off the pear- leaving just the inner seeds. That's why I just cut them up. I prior to that used a propane torch to burn off the spines.
The Sure-jell cost about $3 which yielded 3 pint sized jars, so $1 per jar. Seemed sort of expensive but then again I am a cheap guy-I guess. When I was a kid we had fruit trees, some were crab apples- little 1 1/2" apples which yielded a lot of pectin and folks made jelly without any Sure-Jell. You had to boil everything down but with the prickly pear- from what I read they don't have much/any pectin so you need it.
Guys said don't boil the pectin- you'll destroy it and end up with syrup instead of jelly. Well the directions said to bring the pear juice, lemon juice and pectin (sure-jell) to a strong boil, add in the sugar, bring back to a boil BUT ONLY FOR 1 minute- so I did that.
THIS WAS an experimental batch so I didn't intend to can it, just put in 3 jars and keep in the refrigerator. If you do it that way you are supposed to let the jelly sit 24 hours to set. Well mine set within maybe 8 hours so I put it in the refrigerator.
IT CAME OUT GREAT. I've had "store bought" prickly pear jelly so I knew what it would taste like. To me, it is a red berry, maybe pomegranate sort of taste. I think it would be great as a baste while cooking ribs, etc. I also think a hot version with jalapenos would be great, maybe char/smoke the jalapenos first.
Now I'll try a second batch and can them. As I understand, any high sugar type thing is acidic and pretty easy to can.
You need a LOT OF SUGAR.
Okay- that's been my first time ever attempt. If I did something wrong or maybe if there was a better way, I'm all ears. By the way, if you make some and get syrup- use it for BBQ. I really enjoyed the experience. It makes you look at the "desert" in a whole new way, a land of plenty.

I remember my grandma making jelly from tuna 50 years ago. She would roll the fruit in sand until all the thorns were removed. Didn’t have torches that long ago. The sand worked very well.

Thanks. It takes a while with a torch.

Faster to burn them before you pick them….torch….tongues….bucket.

I'm going to make another batch and try canning it. What I made went into the fridge and in my opinion has improved after a couple of days. Right now I think it most resembles raspberry jam/jelly without the seeds. I have some store bought jelly so I compared the two and the homemade stuff is definitely better. That's no reflection on me because I just followed the recipe.
I was sort of disappointed in the cost. You don't really save much because the Sure-Jell costs a lot. You do however end up with a high quality product. It has been my experience that seems to be the way with a lot of "home grown" things. When I was a kid I was told to grow a vegetable garden and keep account of the costs. When I was done I couldn't believe I didn't save that much and was told farmers operate on a very low profit margin, the quantity of the output is what gives them enough to keep living.

That looks really good.

Update: Tried a pair of hot dog tongs. What a difference, Just give a little twist and the tunas (why don't they call them pears?) come right off. I picked about 100 in a few minutes. I also figured out that those microscopic spines/glochids will probably stick in leather gloves. I wrapped my fingers with masking tape which seems to work great. Since I have a lot of tunas I think I'll skin this batch, I can afford to use more if needed. I was going to add jalapeno to this next batch but the stuff I already made is so good I think I'll just do the same thing. My only complaint so far is paying about $3.30 for a 1.75 oz. packet of Sure-Jell. Are there any cheaper, equally good alternatives? Right now, after having had quite a bit, I think it is probably closest to Raspberry but without any seeds.
QUESTION. I wander the desert not knowing such things. Are there any other items of use, plants, etc.
Also. If you get the juice but just don't feel like canning right away- can you freeze the juice and use it later for making jelly?

algerita berries also make good jelly ...