IN PURSUIT OF THE FORMIDABLE TUNA;
A Far West Texas guide to gathering the fruit and making prickly pear juice
by Bridget Weiss. Illustration by Carolyn Brown Zniewski.
P
rickly pear cactus fruits, a.k.a.
tunas, ripen continually from
early June until late October. In
South County, they’re often ready to
pick as early as late May. Tunas typi-
cally don’t ripen in Alpine, Marfa and
Fort Davis until August. Groups of
cacti only a few yards away from one
another will fruit at different times.
This variation allows harvesting into
late fall.
The cactus has large and small
spines (glochids) as defense. Never
directly touch a tuna. Employ the
indirect approach, with tongs and
gloves, and hope for the best. Even if
you imagine that you didn’t touch a
tuna, you will spend the following
weeks picking tiny spines from all areas
of your body as a result of merely being
in their vicinity. The large spines are
easy to spot and can be removed with
fingers or tweezers. The small spines
can be difficult to see and will happily
embed themselves in your skin, some-
times choosing to take their exit
months after your encounter. The
tiniest broken bit of glochid in a finger
or toe is a constant irritant and can
lead to uncharacteristic expressions of
profanity and frustration.
Be warned: tunas are a food source
for javelina, wild hogs and wasps, and
prickly pear are a fortress for snakes
and burrowing animals. Watch the
ground beneath your feet and examine
the patch before collecting. Tarantula
hawks (very scary wasps) and rat-
tlesnakes are no joke. Harvest the for-
midable tuna with all caution. If you
pick fruit along a county or state road
and are unlucky, the local law or park
employees will ask you to desist. Texas
is 95 per cent privately owned, and the
parks, thankfully, have most of the rest.
In other words: one can’t pick any-
thing at any time for any reason with-
out permission. If you go cowboy and
do not ask first, be prepared for the
property owner or ranger to appear in
the middle of nowhere and ask what
exactly you think you’re doing with
those tongs in hand on their land.
When you have gotten permission,
26
Cenizo
here is a costume and equipment list
for collecting tunas: Water (hydrate or
die), hat against the sun (it wouldn’t
hurt to make this a beekeepers hat—
wasps!), long-sleeved shirt, heavy
pants, snake-proof hiking boots,
leather or heavy-duty rubber gloves (to
be discarded after use), plastic cooler
for collecting tuna (spines will stick and
stay in cloth bags), very long-handled
tongs. Now wade
out to those bright
pink fruits and fill
that cooler.
After an appro-
priate recovery
nap it is time to
bottle tuna juice
for holiday cock-
tails.
You will need
some equipment
and set-up before
you actually bottle
the juice. Fruit
juicers can be pur-
chased in El Paso,
a short 442 miles
round-trip. TIP:
don’t think it will
be better to share
the gas expense with a friend for com-
pany; they might carry on about per-
sonal issues, pausing only for a breath
while you are wishing the volume on
the radio could turn up even higher.
All things considered, you might
want to have ordered a fruit or wine
press online a couple weeks ago. Fruit
or wine presses will save you a series of
burned-out juicer motors, not to men-
tion an insidious purple spatter on
every surface in the kitchen. You will
also need a large round bucket with
mesh paint strainers to fit, heavy-duty
plastic gloves for processing, a vat of
boiling water, a long-handed strainer
spoon, a sponge mop, kitchen towels
(all that you own) and three gallons
kitchen wall paint. Your kitchen will
never be the same.
Sounds so easy, “juice the fruit.”
Don’t be fooled. Tuna skins are hardy,
and most easily softened by spending
Second Quarter 2016
five minutes in a boiling water bath.
Use just enough water to cover the
fruit. Bring water to a boil and simmer
five minutes. Using the large strainer
spoon, remove the softened tunas to
the juicer or wine press. Process the
fruits according to directions of your
chosen equipment. Run the processed
juice through the mesh strainer affixed
to a large bucket. If using a juicer, the
quantity of spines,
seeds and pureed skin
will cause the straining
process to take up to
30 minutes. If using a
wine press, there will
be minimal seeds and
spines. If you need to
feed the kids or have a
glass of wine on the
porch now, you can
refrigerate the juice
and finish the project
tomorrow.
To bottle the juice,
once you have some,
you will need a water
bath canner, canning
jars (1/2 pint-size, as
the actual amount of
juice will be small), a
jar lifter, a cooling rack, fresh-squeezed
lime juice and agave nectar or honey.
Heat the water bath and sterilize the
jars. Ball Jar has a website for informa-
tion on canning. Measure the juice.
Using a non-reactive pot, bring juice to
a boil and simmer three minutes.
Remove from heat. For each one cup
of juice, add one Tablespoon fresh
lime juice and two Tablespoons agave
nectar or local honey. Ladle the hot
mixture into sterile jars, put on lids,
lower jars into canner, bring water
bath to full boil and process the jars in
the canner for 10 minutes. Remove
jars from canner, tighten lids and allow
to cool. As the lids seal, you will hear a
ping.
Now for the word we have all been
waiting for:
Margaritas:
1 – 2 parts prickly pear juice
1 part fresh lime juice
1 part agave nectar or simple syrup
3 parts tequila
1 part people you want to impress
with your understanding of the land.
So you think you know your tunas?
Using your notes, take the quiz.
1. Tunas are a favored food source for:
a) Naturalized camels
b) The neighbors
c) Javelinas and wasps
d) All of the above
2. One can harvest tunas on any
county road:
a) While loudly playing “This
Land is Your Land” by Arlo
Guthrie
b) Wearing snake-proof boots
c) When the moon is in the
seventh house
d) Never
3. Tuna juice, a.k.a prickly pear nectar
is:
a) Earthy in flavor like a beet
b) The primary reason alien life
crashed in Presidio in 1974
c) Used as an aphrodisiac in Pago
Pago
d) An ingredient in saltine crackers
4. Cactus spines are:
a) Harmless and frequently used
in card games
b) Spontaneously generated by
horned lizards in heavy rains
c) Difficult to avoid even with
precaution
d) A friend to all
Bonus:
What answer listed above is the best
fodder for a free form poem?
Answers:
1-C, 2-D, 3-A, 4-C,
BONUS 2-C or 4-B
Sit on your porch and enjoy the
Margaritas!