I'm curious if anyone has ever worked with the fruit of Prickly Pear cacti. There is a prickly pear native to Indiana, and we have one amongst the native plants on our terrace. This year it bloomed, with lovely yellow flowers, and now it has produced vibrant deep red fruit. I've been reading up on it, and today we picked them, or rather my husband did, while wearing gloves and using tongs to remove them. I put them in a bag in the freezer, which according to internet research is the first step to removing the spines, although they do not seem to have the kinds of spines that the southwest ones do. there are only twelve of them. I'm wondering if there will be enough to try making prickly pear jam.

I came into contact with that cactus this past summer by accidentally kneeling on it while berry picking on the terrace. It has taken a while for the resulting marks to fade.