summer pickings
 

velonomad's pie post motivated me to submit my desert version of summer pickings:

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This 4 meter high prickly pear in my front yard yields hundreds of pounds of fruit every summer and provides me with enough sweet juice to last well into winter. I remove the numerous seeds with a juice extractor and freeze the decanted juice in small plastic containers. The frozen juice is added to milk, water or soy milk with yogurt or protein powder and blended. It makes a great recovery drink and prickly pear has purported antioxidant properties. The picking and fruit cleaning is a bit prickly - but worth the discomfort.

My Grand-mother used to make Opuntia jelly and sweet pickles out of those old prickly pears. I loved eating them but always hated picking...and Dad always had the pliars with him. Good times and old memories...

I have a problem with an abundance of fruit some years. Only so many apple pies can ce made before rhey get boring- but those apples have to be used before they spoil- Can any one think of an alternative to Cider? as I have been warned how dangerous it can be. Rough cider at 6% is on a par with a weak wine but doesn't feel that strong when you are drinking it. 5 pints and the vision goes and the hangovers are getting too heavy at my age.

You'll just have to share them with friends. Have a pie eating contest. Get DG to moderate.

Ah, the times you need Elmer's glue and duct-tape. You pour on a little Elmer's where the spines are, smooth it down and let it dry completely. Then cover it with a piece of duct tape. Pull hard and all three go together. I learned this from The Living Desert.