Having just gathered my 2 types of prickly pears off my own garden cacti
I can tell you - SWISHING FRUIT IN WATER WILL NOT REMOVE STICKERS !!!! even singing them over the stove flame will not get rid of all of them either. My ROUND-paddle pears gave wonderful juice to drink fresh or to simmer with sugar for syrup. The LONG-paddle "mushy apple" type fruit with not much juice, is going to be tested/cooked this morning as a butter or jelly ?

The swishing fruit in water was not successful but the singeing worked fine (I didn't try "singing" as Patricia did!) However let's face it - if you play with cacti, your going to get pricked! There will always be at least one sticker (stinker) waiting to get you. The recipe was great and very easy!!

I have been out here nearly 40 years and barely get a prick! I use tongs to pluck with, in Carlsbad they are big near Avalon lake so I do use a knife. Then I toss them in my strainer and rice off. Then into the pot, whole, with some water til they are tender. I clean out with a spoon after I cut the top off. Mush them in a strainer or the fruit press, its a big funnel with holes and a wooden press to smush the fruit. I then put the left over seeds in a jelly bag to drain out the juice. Then I use the one cup sugar to one cup juice and add half a cup of lemon juice. I bring the juice, lemon juice and pectin to boil, then add the sugar. Cooking to the jelly stage. Can using a water bath for about 15 minutes due to our altitude. If it doesn't jell, then use as syrup on pancakes and waffles! All the kids loved the syrup and jelly!

While new to prickly pears, I use a two step method to remove the needles. First, using a leather glove in my non-dominate hand, I hold the fruit in the glove holding it by the ends of the fruit. Then, taking a paring knife, I scrape the nodules where most of the needles are located, and put them in a large pan with water. After I have scraped all of the fruit, I use a vegetable scrubber to go over them again. This seems to remove about all of the needles. Then proceed with whatever you want to do with them.

My experience is that the spines will soften in the cooking process and get strained out anyway. I've been making prickly pear jelly for years and have never had a problem with it. Now finding the spines around the house (even if I isolate the fruit to just the kitchen) is a more common problem!

I also find that you do not need to bother removing the spines (the less you handle the fruits the less you get stuck!) Just rinse them to remove dirt, and then boil 20 min. The spines soften and get strained out with all the other solids.

People, you DO NOT need to remove the needles! I'm a native of Arizona and pick prickly pear every year. The needles will soften and come off when boiled, and strained through a cheese cloth. In fact if you use a good pair of tongs you will not have to touch them at all with your hands. If you are making jelly or juice no need to cut them in half either, throw them whole right into your pot. Plastic bags, rubber or leather gloves do not provide any protection whatsoever and you will be picking needles out of your hands for days.

No need to get the spines out - just boil and they soften. When you put them through the cheese cloth, and mash them- the juice is there. So simple! Good luck.

I simply put the fruits in my juicer with tongs, then boil the pure juice (no water added) for three minutes to remove any impurities. Skim off the foam, cool, then pour through sieve or cheesecloth just to make sure no seeds remain. No need to waste time and energy trying to remove cactus spines...

This is my second year making prickly pear jelly. Never had an issue with the thorns at all! Picked with gloves and tongs, dumped into a horse feed bag, & when taken out to wash, no thorns! Wore rubber gloves to wash twice, cut up, boiled till soft, put through sieve, made jelly.

I have made prickly pear jelly/syrup for years. You don't have to mess with the stickers. Rinse pears well, and place in pot with just enough water to cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Mash and strain. You've got your juice!

Been making PP jelly for years and you really don't need to make it so difficult. Harvest your fruit, rinse it off and then put it whole into a large pot, spines and all. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for a few hours. By the time you're done, the spines will have softened and fallen off and they will be caught in the cheesecloth when you strain the copious juice you'll get from doing it this way.

I found that if you remove the prickley pears and then with a plastic bag over your hand or rubber glove rub the prickley pears on your lawn, removes most if not all and then swirl in water and No prickles. Thats how we do it in South Africa on the farm.

My friend Rosey and I picked 20 lbs of prickly pears yesterday using gloves and needle nosed pliers. We scraped the spines off on a hand sized stone held in one hand pear in the other as we picked. Seemed to work pretty good. Washed the fruit when we got home, put them in a huge le Creuset pot, covered them with water and stewed them for 2-1/2 hours. The colour was glorious. Going to strain it today and make some jelly ... thinking about adding some strawberries to it too ... Hmmm!

When I was young, we would go out to pick Prickly Pear Fruit in the desert. My Dad grew up on a ranch and picking the fruit is what he taught us to do. Before picking the fruit off of the cacti, he would use a weed or a brush to remove the stickers. Made things easier at the beginning. We would eat the fruit fresh like a Peach or a Pear.
Now you see ads on the TV about how this fruit helps with health issues in juice form. I think I am going back to picking the fruit and make a jelly out of it. It should have the same healing powers as the expensive juice. It is supposed to help with inflammation of the body and other things. I have not had any of this fruit in years. Last month, I went back to eating Saguaro fruit too. It is still very good. Now to go around the neighborhood and to pick the fruit. Today is the day, it is nice and cloudy here in Tucson, AZ.

I've found getting the stickers off the fruit with a small propane torch works really well. Hold fruit with tongs and run the torch over one side of the fruit until the stickers are burned away. Rotate the fruit and repeat until the stickers are all burned away.

My husband & I pick a five gallon bucket each year. We have found the best way to remove the stickers is to put them on the BBQ and turn the heat on high. Keep a close eye on them and turn them quickly so they don't burn. It takes about five minutes to fully remove the thorns. We then put them in the juicer. A five gallon bucket will yield 1 gallon of juice.

I have been making this jelly for years and never remove the spines before cooking. They soften in the first boiling and are strained away.

Hi Roxana, when I have made prickly pear juice into jelly, the color changes from a beautiful bright magenta to an orangey color. It is still delicious and pretty, but have you found a way to get the jelly to stay the bright pink color? I'd love some tips! Thanks!

After spending ages trying to remove the spines, I was wondering if one really did have to remove them, so I checked here. After I remove the spines from my fingers I shall proceed without removing them.

Just wondering if anyone has tried to extract the juice using a steamer type juicer?

I have lived in Arizona's high desert my entire life. We have made prickly pear jelly my entire life. I have found the best way to remove the spines from the fruit is to hold it in one hand while wearing rubber gloves, scrub them with soap and warm water with a stiff scrub brush (of coarse being careful not to damage the fruit), cut of the top and bottom and peel it with a veggie peeler. I then put them in a large bowl and sprinkle a cup or two of sugar over them (I minus the amount of sugar sprinkled over the fruit from the total amount in the recipe). I then mash them and strain them through cheese cloth.

I steamed my prickly pears for 15 minutes, then just squeeze them with my potatoe ricer, and for good measure, I run the juice through a very fine strainer.

I have been reading several comments on removing spines from prickly pear. Last year I did the scrub brush method and then dealt with spines in my hands for weeks. This year I took the two oven racks outside, place the fruit on a rack and "torched" the fruit to burn off the spines. The second rack was then placed on top to allow me to flip (with assistance) the entire batch over to singe the other side. Much better than last year, but I am kind of liking the "boil the crap out of 'em" suggestions followed by a straining technique.

Since it still is the season, I think I may try a boil process just to see if this would be less pain (fewer tweezer moments and far less time prepping the fruit by removing spines and then removing skin). If I remember, I will post the results here.

The first batch is on the stove. That was the batch I torched using a brush burner, followed by pealing and boiling.

When it comes to cacti, we all proceed through several learning curves until we figure out which works best for us at the moment.

HI I live in NM and have a LOT of prickly pear fruit in my front yard. I have always wanted to make jelly from it. But I don't have a juicer. I have read I can boil the fruit and then strain it. How long should I boil it? Does a cheese cloth work for straining it? Thanks I super appreciate any info!

To make 1 gallon of jam pick about a Walmart sack of fruit. Burn off thorns over fire. Toss whole fruit in boiling water till color changes or about 15 to 20 minutes of boiling, then toss fruit in food processor, strain juice through cheese cloth. This should give about 3/4 of a gallon of juice, then add cranberry juice to make the full gallon. To that add 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 2 1/2 cups of sugar, use 2 packages of low sugar pectin, mix over low heat and jar up without boiling then seal jars in boiling water for at least ten minutes.

I have been making prickly pear jelly for a couple of yrs now. I use my barbeque and tongs to get the thorns off, after I cook them like potatoes I mash them and then just use a couple of coffee filters to strain the juice.