An annual event, extremely difficult work! Teams of volunteers needed each year!!! PLEASE. Group 1 can pick berries, Group 2 is kitchen canners. This year’s batch was thanks to a mom bribe for sleepover central; 1 adult + 6 kids + 112 degree heat + splinters. So if you ever got a jar from us as a gift, consider it a very expensive one, that might literally have our blood, sweat and tears into it! 🙂 Next year, we are hoping to make a pool party out of it – swimming breaks were a Godsend for us last year.
Ingredients
Prickly Pear berries collected with tongs, 5 gallon buckets, lots of frozen water bottles and lots of sets of tweezers!
Sugar
Water
Large soup pots
Creme Brulee torch or blowtorch that is safe for anyone.
Potato masher or old fashioned sieve
Cheese cloth (we got genius and used shop cloth)
Instructions
Collect berries around 1st week of August when berries are dark purple and showing signs that the birds are eating them. Do not pick any with white fungus. Watch for snakes. Drink lots of water. Go early in am! Know your “gold mines” where large patches of prickly pear are so you aren’t searching all day. You do not get the chance to save and go back; they expire extremely quick once picked.
Swim breaks in between each step!
Station #1: Rinse with water 2-3 times and dump water.
Station #2: Dump onto cookie sheets and grill or burn with blowtorch to get needles off.
Station #3: Take inside and cut large stem end off.
Station #4Toss into pot of boiling water and cook on high. Mash while cooking.
Station #5: Sieve with cheesecloth straining into new pots.
Station #6: Re-heat new juice, adding lots and lots of sugar to taste (depends on yield).
Station #7: Strain with cheesecloth into pre-cleaned jars to top. Seal and flip upside down to seal.
Notes
Refrigerate once opened.
This is extremely high in anti-oxidants, vitamins, and especially fiber! It is a diuretic, so consider yourself warned. *See Meararitas.
It doesn’t smell as sweet as it tastes, and depending on the year/yield, some years are sweeter. Unlike other berries that taste bitter-then-sweet, these taste fibrous-then-sweet. I describe the fruit as a mix between a kiwi and a pomegranate.
If it turns brown, it has fermented and is no good.
Some brown sediment at top or bottom (very little) is ok – sometimes we add spices, and sometimes its just sediment(like pulp in OJ). You will KNOW if it goes bad when it is no longer pink!
