The Opuntias where loaded with ripe fruit while I was in Tucson. Here you can see one plant that is actually not as full as others which I didn't get pictures of:
So I picked a bucket full...
...and brought them home to make jelly and juice:
Mashing them in the canning colander:
Here is the pulp and seeds (anybody want to grow some Opuntia from seed?
And the desired result - juice!
There is a recipe for cactus punch on the Tucson club site and I will make that as well as some jelly. I will have to run the juice through some cheese cloth first to ensure that there are no glochids that got through the colander.
I will update when I further process it. Right now, I've got 1 and 1/2 ice cream buckets full of juice. (about 7 quarts).
Prickly Pear Juice Extraction
Prickly Pear Juice Extraction
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
- Peterthecactusguy
- Posts: 8862
- Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:49 am
- Location: Black Canyon City, Arizona
another way to do it is to burn off the glochids on a gas grill or with a blow torch and then you squish them through a nylon, ya know panty hose... lol.. It sounds funny but it works great. I made 6 jars of PP jelly. I will do an thingy on it. I didnt take any pictures because I forgot my camera.. I will write down the recipe too. Its very easy but takes about 3 hours to do from start to finish.
Here's to you, all you insidious creatures of green..er I mean cacti.
- Peterthecactusguy
- Posts: 8862
- Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:49 am
- Location: Black Canyon City, Arizona