Picking Prickly Pears - great desert food

Just a quick video on a couple methods that I use to pick Prickly Pear fruit both in the field and for the kitchen. In southern Arizona at the end of monsoon season they become ripe and ready to use in a variety of different types of recipes. Thanks for watching:)

#pickingpricklypears
#pricklypearjelly
#homesteadonomics

I own 100% of the visual content in this video. Intro music and first song was created for me by my brother in law, Trey Harris. Second song is from the youtube audio library… credits are as follows:

Ever Felt Pt. 1 - Otis McDonald

[orlandoarzola]

Eat the whole fruit! They’re delicious all the way down to the seeds. I would eat buckets full of these things in Mexico as a child.

[blueghost]

This is by far my favorite fruit. It tastes so refreshing especially when you keep it in the fridge.

[davidbramley]

This is a great video; full of information and straight to the point. Thank you for keeping it short and informative!

[amilom]

Here is how we do it in Tunisia, collects the fruits into a bucket (don't fill it to the top just half), shake the bucket in circular movements, the fruits will hit each others and the thorns will get removed, wash the fruits, depending on the variety you can or not remove the skin, crunch the fruits with a blender, filter the juice with a wide mesh to remove the seeds, add bananas or other fruits to the mixture and blend them again. Congratulation you have a super food juice!!

[Godisnotjesus]

In south africa it's common and popular to those who have access to it. Not a commercial product yet. The prickly pear syrup is heavenly poured over white sorbet ice cream. I ate it once long stuck in my TASTE!

[pilla]

I love eating as a child in Guanajuato Mexico called tunas

[erikawoods]

In Mexico these are widely consumed. I never saw anyone harvesting this way but interesting. In MX we eat the seeds and is best to harvest them early in the morning when cooled by the night, so crisp and juicy and sweet. Delicious!
The white ones are my favorites 🤓

[esandiabeach]

I swear by taking one tablespoon a day in my tea. It has helped reduce my psoriasis!

[dominoo]

Always did stuff like this as a kid, Prickly pear, barrel cactus fruit, and dried mesquite beans are the best.
There use to be a massive 6 foot long dback that lived under a prickly pear at my grandparents house and it was the nicest, most gentle rattler i ever encountered as a kid in the Tucson desert.

[kevingallagher]

Thank you for this wonderful video. I teach third grade in California. My students absolutely LOVED this video! Thank you!!

[tvsdmvl]

This is a completely different way of eating these than what I do. I simply take both ends of it off, then pell off the outside skin with my hands, leaving you to a more softer part with seeds and just eat it all, seeds included!

[DM-eroi]

Had a patch growing in my yard since I was a child and never knew how versatile the fruit was. Thanks for the video man

[KnightsAdventures]

Thanks for sharing the tip on how to eat them in the field and your technique for burning them. We live in NW Peoria Arizona and they are everywhere. They're are so throughout our community, but I'm planning to go off-roading to pick fresh fruit that's growing in the mountains.

[ruthballardart]

I just returned from the Prickly Pear Festival in Superior, Az that is going on today. Some folks foraged this morning and I got half a large bucket so wanted to see how you deal with them after the haul. Heat for the spiny parts seems the easiest way to go. I might make some simple prickly pear syrup and add it to my bubbly water. Thanks for the video!

[janetc]

i also live in Tucson and use those to make juice. i also burn the thorns off then rise each one with a potato scrubber then i blend, strain, and drink it up! free juice love it!
great video!

[UXinMotionNet]

Love the rattle snake cameos :) Such beautiful animals.

[mystylangston]

Well it is a great place with the ripe food on the ground to wait for pray if you are a Rattle Snake. I'm so glad that you just move them, thank you for your kindness.

[blackberryhideout]

Yum, those prickly pears were delicious! Joe, the prickly pear juice can also be used for dyeing fabrics, paper, etc... I think my fingers were pink for a couple of days. :) Great video as always. The prickly pear cam looks really cool. I'm looking forward to some prickly pear cocktails on my next visit. Thumbs up on the snake footage!

[ericthiel]

Lol never knew about these before I moved west and now I eat tons of them when the show up on my prickly pear cactus. Delicious and refreshing in a ways. Almost like a sweeter cucumber but not overly sweet and full of water too!!

[urbanbackyardfarmer]

Cool! I knew I’d find a hood prickly pear vid here! Glad I found this one