I've been gathering fruit the last week or so, I have both persimmons and prickly pears. I'm not sure if I'll get enough to do anything special with them, which is sad, but we can always eat them raw.
Since the persimmons are ripening little section by little section I've been picking them, removing the seeds, cutting them into jam-able pieces, and freezing them. When I have enough then I can use them.
The prickly pears on the other hand need more preparation then that because you have to remove the mini-spines before you cook them for their juice (for jelly), but once you burn the spines off you want to cook them soon. Dilemma, dilemma. There is the option of driving around looking for patches of ripe prickly pears, but I'm not sure if I have that initiative.
The biggest reason I'm writing this though is to give a little advice.
I was stupid and picked the prickly pear fruit, which is sometimes called tuna(weird, I know), barehanded. It is possible to do so and come away unscathed, but not if you pick another one while holding one. I ended up with glochids all over my right hand and fingers, which is pretty nasty because it's an automatic hand full of itty bitty little splinters. The thing is I found a way to get almost all of them out virtually painlessly and quickly.
1) No pressure on the affected area
2) Run fairly warm, though not hot, water over the area until the skin is soft and the muscles are relaxed. This took me a couple minutes.
3) No soap! Just use a fine, non metal, scouring pad and rub.
It took me three scrubbings, but I only had three or four left after all that. It works, but what works better is being careful in the first place.
Owie!
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