How to Harvest and Eat a Prickly Pear

If you just moved to the desert in the West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, or Utah areas you may have noticed a cactus that has a dark red or maroon tint to a few of its buds. These are known as Prickly Pears and yes they are edible. This article will teach you how to harvest a Prickly pear so you can enjoy eating it.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Gloves
• Knife
• Clean Plastic bag or Zip loc bag
• Water faucet/hose/ or sink.

1. 
    
   Ripe Prickly Pears

   Your first step is to locate a cactus that has ripe prickly pears on it. You will know when they are ripe because they will be a reddish or dark maroon color.

2. When you have found a ripe prickly pear put your gloves on and pull out your knife... Cut the prickly pear off of the cactus by cutting at the bottom of the pear where it touches the green part of the cactus... Caution there are small thorns when handling a prickly pear so be sure to wear thick rough leather gloves (working gloves) or thick rubber gloves.

3. After you cut the pears from the cactus place the pear in the clean plastic bag or zip loc bag.

4. Take the prickly pears to your clean water source and rinse the pears under the water to wash away the small thorns that are on the pear. If you get any thorns in your hand while handling these pears just rinse your hands off and they will most likely come out, if they do not come out just use duct tape to remove them.

5. 
    
   inside of pear

   After washing your prickly pear you may now shave off the outer layer of the pear, in the picture you can see what the pear will look like on the inside.

6. Now after you have cut the outer layer of skin off of the pear you can now eat it... Caution the pear can temporarily stain skin to a pinkish red color, just use soap and it will come out after a few washes. Enjoy the taste of your very own harvested prickly pear!

Tips & Warnings

• Wear Thick Gloves either rough leather work gloves or thick rubber gloves.
• Always be careful when harvesting any product with cactus', They do have thorns that could hurt if you are punctured by their thorns
• Prickly pears can and will stain your skin temporarily a pinkish red color if contact from the prickly juice touches your skin.
• Be careful of snakes or other animals that may live in the cactus patch that you are harvesting from.

[Yibbie]

on 4/29/2009 really I did not know Georgia had prickly pears! :) I never have been there! Thanks for your comments!

[momose]

on 4/29/2009 Good tips!I recently taught my young grandson to cut and eat prickly pears. We have them in south Georgia too.