The Basics: How to pick your own cactus fruit!

If you follow me on Instagram (@keepingitrealblog), you may have seen that a couple weeks ago, I took a detour on a day trip to pick some prickly pear fruit. I used the fruit to make some candies, which I featured the recipe for on this blog a long time ago (like actual years).

I was delighted to see that Phoenix Public Market was hosting a workshop on desert foraging – more specifically, on foraging prickly pears and their fruit! Peggy Sorensen is an expert on desert foraging, and hosted the workshop. Her mother – the absolute sweetest and most adorable lady I’ve ever talked to – was in the audience and talked to me about her daughter and how amazed she is at what she does after the presentation. Seriously, made my day. I also got to talk to Peggy herself afterwards, and she was excited that I was going to be writing about my day and “getting the word out” on edible desert food!

Although I’d harvested prickly pear fruits a couple times before, I learned some great information today! I also got the answer to the pressing question I had last week – what do I do with the seeds?

Basics of Processing a Prickly Pear Fruit (and Pad!)

- First and foremost: be a good steward! Us humans can be greedy and it’s easy to take more than we need simply because it’s there. Sorensen made a point to let us know to be sure to leave fruit on the plant for the birds and bugs that eat the fruit. The fruit also adds a splash of color to the desert, so let it be beautiful!

- It’s actually best for most people to find plants on private property and ask the owners if you can pick their fruit. A lot of “wild” plants may be on owned land and it’s a little sketchy to harvest in a lot of areas, though experienced foragers will tell you where you can safely harvest in the wild J

- Use tongs to gently twist fully red fruits off the plant. Put the fruit in a paper bag or a box. The tiny spines won’t poke through, and you can shake some of them off as part of the first step of removal.

- Sorensen boils her fruit for about 10 minutes. This softens and dissolves the tiny, painful spines as well as sanitizes the fruit, removing any botulism that could be on the plant.

- Remove the spines by burning on a grill or with a torch, or by soaking and rinsing 3-4 times.

- To juice the fruit, there were several methods – the one I use is to place the fruit in a blender and puree. You can also freeze, thaw and smash through a colander; process in a juicer, or use a press.

- You can use the juice to flavor teas and water – just start out using a little at a time. Many people of European and African descent are sensitive to large amounts of the raw juice and can get a little sick. If you start small, you become tolerant to it.

                - use the juice to make jelly candies or jam

                - make syrup for pancakes, ice cream, flavoring drinks, etc.

                - if you make your own kombucha, you can even add it to that during the second fermentation.

Some other cool things I learned

- The pads (green part) are edible, as well, and I’ve eaten them before. La Santisima, a taco shop in Phoenix and Glendale, as some amazing tacos featuring grilled prickly pear pads. You can grill to remove spines or peel and grill to cook. They’re similar to a pepper in texture.

- The pads are also an amazing natural remedy for infections, minor burns, and sunburns. Sorensen said she believes that the pulp and juice from the pads is more effective than aloe vera used this way.

- Filet a prickly pear pad by using tongs to hold the pad. Trim off the sides of the pad where the spines, are, then slice the pad through the middle. You can then score the juicy side of the pad and use that as a poultice for sunburns, or you can cut it up and cook it or grill whole like a steak.

- There are OVER 2,000 edible and medicinal plants in the Sonoran Desert and mountain desert alone. I learned that almost every part of both Palo Verde trees and Mesquite trees are edible – think of all the resources we have access to that we aren’t using simply because of a lack of education on the topic.

- Almost every variety of cactus and its seeds are edible – and they’re super nutritious! “Upright” cacti like saguaros have seeds that are oilier and you can blend into a seed butter. They were called the “salmon of the desert” because of their omega fatty acid content.

- THE ANSWER TO THE PRESSING SEED QUESTION: if you have a strong enough blender, grind the seeds fresh and wet, then dry the pulp in the oven on the lowest setting – break it into powder after dried. Or, dry the seeds out beforehand, brush the dried pulp off with your hands, and pulse the dried seeds in a coffee grinder.

When I spoke to Peggy after the presentation, she told me she was hoping to start teaching classes in –guess where – the west valley, particularly for the city I live in! I’m excited to learn more and hope that she’s able to start this soon. I would love to learn more about what our beautiful desert home has to offer! If you read this blog and are interested in learning more, when I find out more information about this, I will be sure to share it here and on the Instagram!