Jump to content
The Corroboree
Jonstn

Getting seeds out of prickly pear

Recommended Posts

Hey all just go back from picking some prickly pear off an opuntia on the side of the road:

apologies for shotty pics, they were taken on phone

post-9899-0-75792900-1328752687_thumb.jp

Went under prepared and now covered in glochids lol :wacko:

pretty sure some of them need to finish ripening, they were covered in fluff but apparently its just some bug you can wash off :)

post-9899-0-26886200-1328752703_thumb.jp

post-9899-0-44029200-1328752716_thumb.jp

I cut one in half to sus it out as ive never tried one before, didn't taste to bad I'm keen on getting the seeds out though for growing and giveaways but i have no idea how to separate the seed from the pulp, was thinking maybe a low heat in water and straining? or just leaving the pulp to dry out and clean them up with my fingers :)

cheers for the help everyone, time to head back to the tweezers hahaha

post-9899-0-75792900-1328752687_thumb.jpg

post-9899-0-26886200-1328752703_thumb.jpg

post-9899-0-44029200-1328752716_thumb.jpg

post-9899-0-75792900-1328752687_thumb.jpg

post-9899-0-26886200-1328752703_thumb.jpg

post-9899-0-44029200-1328752716_thumb.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The best way to get them clean is to suck the pulp off & then spit them into a fine sieve and wash them.

The glochids soften up and partially dissolve if you soak your hands in water as hot as you can stand. Gloves are always a good idea when handling Opuntias.

That white secetion on the fruit can be used to start a culture called Tibicos that is used to ferment a pro biotic drink.

I'd been keen for some seeds if you are keen to trade.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

does anyone know the sugar content of the fruit ?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

does anyone know the sugar content of the fruit ?

 

not sure but the ones i have tasted have all been pretty sweet

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a fruiting opuntia near my place that's hanging over the footpath. When it ripens I will test the sugar content and publish my results here.

Prickly Pear wine, anyone ? :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The best way to get them clean is to suck the pulp off & then spit them into a fine sieve and wash them.

The glochids soften up and partially dissolve if you soak your hands in water as hot as you can stand. Gloves are always a good idea when handling Opuntias.

That white secetion on the fruit can be used to start a culture called Tibicos that is used to ferment a pro biotic drink.

I'd been keen for some seeds if you are keen to trade.

 

thanks heaps for the tips mate :) didnt know they partially dissolve will soak them and clean them up before i skin em :wink:

I grabbed 20+ fruit and theres still so so so SO MANY!!

So yeah, ill be handing out seeds for sure :) ill start a thread when they are ready and ive check viability etc

also grabbed 2 forearm sized pads and about 4 palm sized if you're interested :wink:

does anyone know the sugar content of the fruit ?

 

This is all i could find on the sugar content

Fruit Sugar Content 11% Acid Content 0.1%

http://brewery.org/l...ry/SugAcid.html

 

it was a little sweet, although i think they need to ripen up some more, should i leave them attached to the pads to ripen? or just stick them in a cupboard for a few days?

Edited by Jonstn

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a fruiting opuntia near my place that's hanging over the footpath. When it ripens I will test the sugar content and publish my results here.

Prickly Pear wine, anyone ? :)

 

wine, spirits, jam :) im going to go apeshit lol

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's a fruiting opuntia near my place that's hanging over the footpath. When it ripens I will test the sugar content and publish my results here.

Prickly Pear wine, anyone ? :)

 

yes please xD

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If youre going to make wine, you might need to use a pectic enzyme, which helps to extract the juice and also to drop the pectin haze out of your wine so it's nice & clear.

Also boil the fruit first to kill any wild yeast (and whatever that fur is), or at least use some sodium metabisulfite to kill the nasties

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Cheers psylo, will have to do some reading up :)

sodium metabisulfite is potent! the amount of times i breathed that shit in from my food processing factory days... brutal.

I like what sallyD said about creating a culture from the fluff (Tibicos ) and doing a pro biotic drink :) so many different things to do i dont know where to start lol

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

actually, this all sounds pretty cool. Tibicos is an intertwined matrix of bacteria and yeasts, some of which are used in the production of alcohol, albeit lab-isolated pure strains. If you have enough to make two batches of wine, try one with a cultured tibicos starter and one with store-bought wine yeast. There WILL be a massive difference in the taste, though I dont know which one would be nicer.

If Im understanding correctly, your tibicos will form grains, similar to kefir grains. Fascinating.

EDIT: Dont use sodium metabisulfite on the tibicos or you will probably kill it !

Edited by Psylo Dread

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow well there you go thanks for sharing :) is there a site with this info or is it straight from the knowledge bank? Very fascinating!

Could i just put them in a lunch box or something and let it grow? Going to have to hit up the search engine again lol

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibicos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_tablets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pectinase

If you go ahead with wine project, PM me and I will send you a campden tab, and maybe some enzyme in solution if I can work out how to post it. ill save you buying a whole bottle / jar of each if youre only doing this as a one-off

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I make my water kefir like this

1 cup filtered water

2 tsp raw sugar

1 slice of lemon

1 shell from the beach (pre boiled)

I mix the water and sugar to dissolve the sugar and then drop the shell in and add the slice of lemon.

Then I add the kefir grains (which look a bit like water crystals you'd use in potting mix)

Let it sit for 1 or 2 days at room temp in a jar that can breathe.

1 day if you have a lot of grains, 2 days if you don't.

Strain out the grains after fermentation is complete( you can tell it's done because it doesn't taste sweet) and start a new batch.

I make a bigger batch but that's the basic recipe.

The shell adds calcium to the mix which I don't think really makes the drink any better for you but it really seems to help the grains propagate - maybe opuntia has a calcium content that is missing from sugar, I really don't know.

I think the alcohol content works out very low, to about 1-2 % when that recipe is used, more sugar would give a higher percentage of ETOH.

& Jonstn

That hot water soak was meant to be to soften the glochids in your skin, but the hot water soak could be effective to prepare the fruit. I think some people burn them off before they handle them.

I wouldn't mind a pad if you can spare one.

Edited by SallyD
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the white mealy stuff looks to me like cochineal/Dactylopius

tibicos apparently appears as hard granules on the leaves (http://www.ncbi.nlm....1264278/?page=1)

that simple description reminds me of white grains I often see forming on the callousing ends of tricho cuttings..

(it would be very cool to isolate your own tibicos from wild source though.. im off to pour myself a glass of some homemade ginger kefir)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

whoa hows this for a strange coincidence. I just mentioned to Mrs Psylo that my next weird & whacky project will be with prickly pears, and she replied "I just bought some", and produced a punnet of three fruits labelled 'Indian fig".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

^^ keeper for sure!

Hopefully I can find the time for all these projects, I'll let you know if I go through with the wine :) cheers for the offer mate.

@sallyD yeah bud I'll give ya some pads :) going to go back to it soon so will have plenty more ;)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A good set of leather gloves will stop the glochids and when you pick the fruit just rub them off with your gloved hand. To get seed just smear the pulp on kitchen paper and let it dry then pick them off the paper.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My neighbour grows prickly pears for the fruit. To remove the glochids from the fruit he puts a handfull of fruit in a hessian bag and then rolls them round Kind of like polishing a bowling ball. Alll the glochids stick in the sack and are pulled out of the fruits, apparently this is how they do it before they take them to the markets

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the white mealy stuff looks to me like cochineal/Dactylopius

tibicos apparently appears as hard granules on the leaves (http://www.ncbi.nlm....1264278/?page=1)

that simple description reminds me of white grains I often see forming on the callousing ends of tricho cuttings..

(it would be very cool to isolate your own tibicos from wild source though.. im off to pour myself a glass of some homemade ginger kefir)

 

I must have had my wires crossed, now you say the culture comes from the leaves I'm sure that's correct.

I read on a website http://users.sa.char.../kefirpage.html that ginseng fermented in tibicos becomes psychoactive. I tried it a few times and it worked the first time but not the next so .....

From Doms Kefir website

I discovered if an amount of either dry Korean Ginseng [Panax quinquefolius], or dry Chinese Angelica root or Dong Quai [Angelica sinensis] is added to strained water kefir [sKG have been removed] and brewed for 48 hours in a secondary fermentation, the beverage incurs noticeable psychoactive activity. The altered state of mind occurs very shortly after drinking an amount of the brew, and it lasts for only a short time [short half life]. Other varieties of herbs possibly due to pharmacological activity when brewed in a water kefir preparation, may also produce a similar effect. This could be due to the production of certain compounds, or, it an indication of pharmacological activity increase of specific compounds, or better bio-availability of those compounds due to fermentation.

Where acetyl groups are bound to certain other organic molecules through fermentation, they impart an increased ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, which could be the case here. I doubt very much that this is simply due to an increase in alcohol content through the added sugars of such herbs, for the feeling of euphoria is quite unique to that of an alcohol-induced euphoria. However, certain phyto-compounds may be responsible for the production of interesting molecules through fermentation. This certainly makes an interesting area for further research. If an interested scientist reading this does research this area, could you please be so kind to forward your findings on to me? I am always willing to supply the culture in return for a paper on such a study, as I have done in the past.

 

Do you do the ginger in secondary fermentation ferret ?

Edited by Evil Genius

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

".........Went under prepared and now covered in glochids lol :wacko:......"

You wont be loling in a few days time. You think you got them all only to keep finding them, and finding them...adnauseum.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i just ate one. fuck, too many seeds for me, they are embedded in my teeth

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Those are some sweet ideas cheers hillbilly & dworx going to get onto it tomorrow can't be assed doing anything after work haha.

The laugher was very sort lived bong, I had gloves but was meant to have some green bags and shit on hand to cover them whil I got em off, got all glochids in my ribs and shins and forearms then while trying to stupidly dust them off with my bare hands at home I got shanked even more :) gotta love random stabbing pains :blink:

I read not to eat the seeds if you har a problem digesting hard seeds, but I thought they were just being pussies haha, they weren't there is so many seeds in em and they are so bloody hard can't even chew them :scratchhead: I can see why it's juice is so popular though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I picked a couple under ripe fruit from a plant I came across thinking it may ripen but it never did, I forgot about them leaving them on some potting mix, they struck roots and shot little pups.. even the fruit is a pest lol. small seedlings are excellent for grafting in my experience.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×