Wow!  That is cool!  There are some great recipes fro those you know!  Everything from blended in martinis to salad dressing!  I eat them with lemon and a tad of salt or just plain.  Love em!

Bass, your photo of the different color pears is cool.  Beautiful color!

Little John, you do an amazing job with these!  The gloves help :-D

I haven't watched the video yet but my method is to take the "Tunas" and put them into a mesh bag and shake them around to get rid of some of the bigger spines.  After this I carefully take each one with tongs and peel them just like Little John shows on his pictures. Love these!

I've never watched this process so I can't say first-hand, but someone in the education department where I worked several years ago told me they separated large quantities of juice from the pulp by freezing the fruit and then piling it in a colander lined with paper towels, over a bowl, to thaw. I don't know whether they sliced the fruit before freezing it, but I think that would help. As it was explained to me, freezing ruptures the cell walls, and as the fruit thaws, the juice runs out and leaves the spines/glochids behind, trapped by the paper towels.

 I have a super tasty sweet variety.  Found it in San Diego.   Fruit is orange.   Haven't found any purple ones that taste good, but there are a lot around.   Ken, PM me and I can drop off some.  

Do they fruit readily in pots . I dont get blooms.

Where I am from is actually the most far north they grow 'natively.' We're only a couple of minutes away from Point Pelee National Park.

The cacti (Opuntia humifusa) might brough here centuries ago by First Nation Peoples. The park is the epicenter of the Caldwell First Nation's traditional territory.

I collect Opuntia sp. and select ones growing feral for fruit quality. There is a huge variance in the quality of the fruit. Most of the red smaller ones I have seen have a much higher seed count, more glocids, and less brix.

One of the superior selections I have found was a large fruited sweet watermelon tasting fruit with low to moderate count of soft chewable seeds. This one below I call Torrance PCH#1.

     

I really want to buy an orange variety.. I have been told its the sweetest and has virtually no spines/thorns.

Orange varieties are great, I have one in a big pot, originally from Sicily. They're spiny though.