To open fruit: cut off ends, make one slice down one side; open with hands and out comes the fruit. Easy and no fighting the stickers

To harvest use a long kitchen knife. Have a bucket with medium coarse sand in it ready to collect the pears. When there is a couple of pounds of fruit in the bucket shake the bucket until all of the spines are off the fruit then remove the fruit and continue harvesting. Freeze the fruit and remove the inside by pressing through a cheesecloth. The rest of the recipe is standard jelly making.

I live in Chino Valley AZ and I pick my Prickly Pears using thongs. Wash in acidic water (we have a water machine). I use my Champion juicer to juice. I put the whole pear, skin and stickers in. I get beautiful juice and the seed/skins are just pulp. I do strain it before boiling it. Of course I use lemon juice too. I just made jam and juice last night. Lots more to pick. I didn't realize I could freeze the fruit. That takes some pressure off me!

When making pear jelly/jam, I just use the age old method, leather glove on left hand, knife in right. If you pick 'em right, all that's needed is to cut both ends, and peel! put pears in pot, boil, add other ingredients and jar!! Joila! You have your 'jammie' (jelly/jam!)

To make prickly pear jelly the easy way rinse off the pears in a bucket of water once clean pour off the water and just pour the whole pear stickers and all in a fruit steamer you only get the juice no stickers. The steamer is easy to clean. What a joy no stickers in your fingers!!!

Just rinse your prickley pears in water and pour off. You can now put the fruit with the thorns in the fruit juicer no thorns come out of the spout just juice. No thorns no worry. This is the juicer you put on the stove. It cooks the fruit but only juice comes out.

This recipe was so easy. Thanks is there a recipe for making the wine? A couple of people mentioned making wine with the prickly pears.

Did you all know that the older the Prickly Pear Cactus plant is, the less stickers the "pears" have on them? Have you also heard of using a juicer/steamer and using a couple of layers of cheese cloth (I use 6 layers)? Saves lots of time and the juice color/taste is amazing.

Easiest method I have found. Place fruit in colander take outside and turn the hose on them to wash clean. Using a large pressure cooker and about 1/2 inch water, bring pressure up and hold it there about 4 minutes. Release pressure, remove lid and using a potato masher completely crush the fruit. Place large colander over a bowl and pour in crushed fruit. Let it drip for a few minutes. Dump the colander remains. Line colander with a few layers of layers of cheesecloth or use jelly bag and pour the juice through to remove any fine stickers left over. Then I put in a crock pot and simmer it all day to reduce.

See a lot of comments about removing the fruit and cactus tines. The easiest way to pick the fruit is with bbq tongs. Forget burning off the tines or any other nonsense. Hold the fruit with tongs and half or quarter it into your pot. After you boil and mash, just strain it and the tines will strain out. I do this every year and most people make it harder than it needs to be. Keep it simple and you'll enjoy it much more!

I fill a bucket with water and swish it around and dump the water out - I then fill it again and swish and drain - I then fill it again and quickly scrub the fruit with a small nail brush - I wear gloves through the whole procedure - this has been most productive way to eliminate the stickers. I do it every year this way - singeing and one water swish never worked for me.