Thursday, June 14, 2007

'Il-Bajtar tax-Xewk' - Prickly Pears



Prickly Pear trees are known all over the world in hot countries. We have them here too, I love the fruit they make. As you can see at the moment they only have the flower but later in the summer it will become fruit, yummy! To cut them off the tree one has to either do it very early in the morning or late in the evening when the sun is not there. The reason for this is because of the prickles. One has to wear gloves then to slice the outer skin and get the fruit. I like to put them in the fridge and eat them cold as snacks mmmmmm!!

16 comments:

marie6 said...

Very delicious, makes your mouth water thinking about them!!!

Peter said...

When will they be ready for eating?

Anonymous said...

The cake of yesterdays photo was made for my daughter natalia.I can tell you that it was delicious and everyone went home with a good taste. Once again I thank Laetitia for the help and all the support she gives me. Apart from a special cousin she is also a true friend.

Dina said...

Peter, not so sure about when they will be ready exactly but approximately late in the summer.

Olivier said...

les fleurs sont tres belles et tres colorées. je me demande si on en fait pas aussi de la soupe ?


the flowers very beautiful and are very coloured. I wonder whether one does not make of it also soup?

Lori said...

I've seen them before but I never knew that these cactuses grew fruit! How interesting. I wish I could taste it!

Kate said...

These must be good to go through all that trouble in order to eat it. I've never tasted it and believe that I must be missing something good!

Anonymous said...

I really liked reading your blog today and learning about the fruit of the prickly pear.

Abraham Lincoln
If you have not seen a big ant then it might be worth seeing my post this morning.
Brookville Daily Photo

Dina said...

There is a liquer which is being made from this fruit and one should not have more than a shot or two, because it is very strong.

thanks everyone for visiting

inspired said...

;o) i'll have to try them one day ..

Martin Stickland said...

Well! You learn something every day, I just thought it was a name for them and I did not know that you could eat them. I don't know, what will they think of next!

Steve Buser said...

I'm with the crowd on this. We had these a kids but never knew that you can eat them.

Dina said...

Martin and Steve, yes you can eat them and if you have them try them as they are very tasty.

Jilly said...

I have these in my garden and really love the taste. However I ALWAYS get the spines in my fingers when trying to open the fruit! My neighbour puts them into a bag with sand and shakes them - she says it gets the prickles off but I'm not sure I believe her. Lovely photo of a good plant.

Anonymous said...

I never know that. Will you be posting a photo of it later to show us how it looks like?

Anonymous said...

They are delicious! Having grown up in Malta, but now living in the UK, I was really excited to find prickly pears (from South Africa) in our local supermarket. Unfortunately, I did get lots of the thinner hair-like spines all over my hands when trying to peel them, so I have been trying to find out what to do to avoid this happening again. Apparently Mexican Indians do roll them about in sand or grit, but I seem to remember in Malta people soak the fruit for a long time-not sure if that just gets rid of the larger spines though. Any ideas?