Anyone who goes to Mexican markets and buys prickly pears should read these articles:

Xoconostle is pictured in #5:
[www.saveur.com]

[www.desertusa.com]

[homeguides.sfgate.com]

Yesterday I bought a bag of xoconostle from a Mexican market, came home and juiced them and I was shocked to taste the juice. It was mildly sour and tart. NOT sweet at all. I cut one open and it wasn't even soft and juicy inside like most prickly pears. No, it was spongy. It was almost like cutting into a tomatillo.

So, then I started to read about the many varieties of prickly pears. I once grew a columnar cactus that produced a prickly pear fruit and it looked like dragon fruit when I cut it open and it was sweet. Anyway, lesson learned that not all prickly pear varieties are sweet. It makes me appreciate my prickly pear cactus all the more. The fruit are so delicious and amazingly sweet with high medicinal qualities (anti inflammatory) that I rate it as one of the top fruits.

Anyway, this guide explains why sometimes you see green cactus fruits on sale. I always thought they were unripe, but I guess they are just a different variety.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2016 04:57PM by Tai.

The green sour ones are used for salsa.

The carmine red ones are often from the plantations of the variety used for growing cochineal insects which are killed by the millions for use in dyes.

SueZ Wrote:
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> The carmine red ones are often from the
> plantations of the variety used for growing
> cochineal insects which are killed by the millions
> for use in dyes.

I have read that it may be possible to extract the dyestuff straight from the fruits, bypassing the step of killing and using the bugs altogether (who do not manufacture the pigment themselves but get it from eating the plants). I intend to test this theory once I can get enough of the right prickly pears when they are in season again.