Prickly pear fruit and pods are abundant in Tucson, though the dark red and purple pods of late summer are best for jam.
Make some prickly pear jam
Life in the upper Sonoran Desert has its perks. Among them: six months of peerless weather and more prickly pear pods than you can shake a rain stick at. Rather than letting the pods go to waste, reader Christine Newman suggests making prickly pear jam.
Some picking, boiling, mashing and straining is involved. The dark-red and purple pods of late summer are best. Carolyn Niethammer’s “American Indian Cooking” has recipes, and Desert Harvesters (desertharvesters.org) has classes on harvesting and cooking with desert plants. If you don’t have ready access to prickly pear pods, kindly ask neighbors if you can collect theirs.
