Santa Rita Prickly Pear

The spring bloom of the Santa Rita Prickly Pear cactus nearly obscures the purple of the paddle. Look closely in the upper right. These cactus are native only to the Santa Rita Mountains just east of the Santa Cruz River Valley in Pima County, Arizona. The skin of each pad is lavender to purple. The colder the winter the more pronounced the color. The only variant in these is the color of the thorns. For some reason in some locations thorns are white; other locations show black thorns.

These are so beautiful. Each flower, over the course of the summer, will become an edible fruit a little larger than a hen's egg. You pick them with kitchen tongs and hold the fruit over the fire to burn off both the thorns and the hidden spines. Then you can reduce the fruit to juice; much the same way you heat any fruit to release juice to make jelly. Prickly pear jelly is good. Prickly pear margaritas are better than good; the flavor is unique.