Il Manfredoniano has an excellent video on how the local sellers clean cactus fruit in literally seconds.

I bought a box that came with six pieces (to be honest, I was attracted to the colours that’s why I bought it). Rememb er Prickly Pear is a noxious weed in australia and some of these plants are now controlled by the environmental depos by killing it with the cochineal bug lavae which is a good thing. I figured a couple ought to answer the question and picked up one or two to see if I could get any sense of how ripe might feel. I’ve always eaten them for breakfast in Sicily and once on a trip to the mountains with a taxi-driver we included them in our lunch. I do not know what country you live in, but in Australia you have to know someone who has a plant and will give you a bit that you then grow- it is a noxious weed in some parts because it spreads so easily.I’ve only consumed prickly pears as a snack or dessert after a meal, but other applications include jam, juice (making sure to add some acidity like lemon juice), and vinaigrette. If you can get past its threatening exterior, you will see something that I have been told is a huge turn-off for visiting Americans: the bulk of the fruit (except for a bit of brightly colored pulp) is seeds. d) A contraption of engineering genius to reach the ones higher up, further away, and of extreme prickly dimensions. My aged Sicilian aunty who lives in Ragusa always warns me not to eat too many – apparently the seeds can group together and form a lump in the bowel causing constipation.

In the late summer and early fall, it is truly a beautiful sight to see the winding roads of Sicily lined with their bright pinks, oranges, yellows, and greens.My little moment of mouth-wiping on the way back to the car served to spread the pain further abroad.

They were brought to Italy by the Spanish explorers in the New World and found a perfect new home in southern Italy which, at the time, was ruled by Spain. My dad peeled, as usual (he is the expert and is so quick), my last Fichi d’India (from Sicily, of course) to taste in 2015. Sternbergia lutea are found all the way from the western Mediterranean and North Africa to Takijistan and are one of the world’s oldest of cultivated flowers.Apples, red and yellow, were obvious picks but what I was most keen to investigate was the oval shaped, mango looking fruit that was strangely familiar yet completely foreign. This year with so much water falling in Melbourne at the one time the flavours are a bit watered down compared to sunnier harvests.