Anyone growing Cactus pears? 

Are you kidding?....
I grew up eating both ficus carica and opuntia ficus indica and love both.

My wife's grandfather had brought a pad from Italy many moons ago...Bet you haven't heard that much,,,eh?  and Currently in my in law's backyard there is a monster prickly pear plant that is in kind of a microclimate and does fairly well. It bears orange fruit and beautiful flowers. It is starting to explode with buds now and I'll post some pics when they're in full bloom.

In Sicily they were grown for the fruit and as a border on people's farm land. They make great fences, anyone going through them will likely loose a lot of blood.
There is a purple variety that is thorn less and available from a nursery in Arizona. I will get a pad of that variety this year.

I buy the white fruit and purple fruit at mexican markets in south Florida, during their summer season, and totally pig out.

 A word of caution!!!, if you plan on eating many fruits, make sure you eat some bread mixed with the fruit. The many seeds in the fruits have a tendency to stockpile in your stomach and plug up the exit way... if you know what I mean.....

I have a hardy cactus that blooms and produces here in zone 6 with no problem. 

Bass, I sent you a msg

Bass,

Cecil, You probably have the ornamental type not the sweet edible ones. Right?

No Bass,

Hey Bass, does the purple Cactus pears produce purple flower and the orange pears produce orange flower?  Just curious.  cheers,

Mine produce bright orange flowers, but the fruit is purple.

Same here!

Around here, the prickly pear fruit is often called by its Spanish name--"tuna." That caused me a little confusion when I first arrived. The wild fruit is collected locally to make syrup and jelly, but I've never been that enthused about it--without all the added sugar, it wouldn't amount to much. I've never tried one of the "domesticated" varieties like Bass showed us--those look delicious!

Bass, great action shot of the bee in the flower!

We have prickly pear (edible) all around my neighborhood, lots of families from Mexico live within a few blocks - all of them have at least 2 fig trees of various variety nearby also.

I pick them every year and make ice cubes of them for drinks.

I see the picture shows them stripped already.  I have tips for anyone who wants to peel the fruit.  Like figs, I feel like the prickly pear needs to look soft, wrinkly and overripe to enjoy.

The needles on these are tiny and will stick you everywhere.  Use gloves when picking.  On a gas oven/range, roll the picked fruit over the flame and it will burn off the thorns in less than a second.

Once done, make a slit from top to bottomas though you were going to bud graft or something.  Then peel the skin from around the outside. 

Works like a champ.

I've seen some people say to soak them in water and take a sponge, but that just ruins your sponge and doesn't always get all the thorns out.

I would love to get a hold of a pad or two if I could grow them out side here

I think this is what Bass is looking for...
There was a fruit from last season, that is just ripening, I picked it and It tasted pretty good for out of season fruit... You can see the new crop start to come out, this plant, will have a few hundred prickly pears.. It's an old plant, been growing in same spot at least 25 years. More pics to follow as the season progresses

These make wonderful protective fences for your home! Not many want to climb over these security guards!

How long it takes to bear fruit via planting pads ?? Looks interesting enough for me to have one.

I have tons of prickly pears on the property and would be glad to ship every single pad off.  Not kidding.   They multiple faster than rabbits.
The flowers are yellow and the tuna's turn a deep red when ready to get.  The tortoises love them.  I have been told that you slice the green pads into thin strips, throw them in a frying pan and they taste like green beans.  Have never tried it. They also have a variety around here that does not have spines, they call it a "Blind Cactus". 
Cathy

Bass, I had a native variety on my hill, which had a lot of fruit. Very sweet, but lacking in flavor. Took me about 3 years to kill that thing.

I made prickly pear wine, jelly and syrup a few years ago while in Cali. Man, those glochids are not fun. It seemed like it took forever for them to work their way out of my skin. I even used heavy gloves to process them. Rubbing them in sand is the key to processing. We found a couple different colors when we collected them. I have some video footage, I'll have to splice together a youtube video.

The 'orange' prickly pear in my earlier post is the commercial variety used in Italy.
Google 'fichi d'india' (Italian for 'Indian figs')for images and you will see many fruits and pads. The pads are different from the purple USA/Mexico native varieties or wild varieties also shown on this thread. Wild fruit is smaller and not nearly as sweet as the commercial variety from the Meditarrenean area. Look for prickly pears from Andy Boy company in late summer for the commercial ficus indica.
See some opuntia varieties from Lithops nursery in AZ
http://www.lithops.net/Opuntia.htm


Andy Boy's page
http://www.andyboy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=89

They are kinda pricey usually 99 cents or more each.
Gotta try the prickly pear margarita's from andy's site...

I started some of these in summer of '09 (Note: This was before I was bitten by the figbug) . I found one of the reddish-purple ones growing locally. I was impressed with how big the fruits were on this one so I asked the owner about it. She had no idea where it originated but was happy to share some starts with me. Opuntia are very easy to start from the pads by the way. 

This one is obviously very cold hardy as it's been growing here in Z6 for many years. I've seen others around here but this one really stands out because of the large fruit. It has very few large spines but it make up for it with an abundance of the glochids mentioned previously.

I rec'd a different one with long spines from a friend. It may have even larger fruit than the above mentioned one (purplish in color). He's been propagating and keeping his outside in pots year-round so it's proven cold hardy as well.

I also picked up a spineless one recently from a local nursery. Nursery owner said it will grow outdoors just fine here as well. We shall see.

  

Ben, Thanks for posting, this is the common prickly pears in the Mediterranean. They are so sweet and refreshing on a hot day. 

Bass, gloves wise, if there is a harborfreight tool store anywhere near your 'hood, go and buy a pack or three of welding gloves. They are made of heavy leather and reach midarm. I think mine were $9  for a pack of three and you will thank me. Regular gloves are a waste of time for most cactus and I grow many pachypodiums as well with severe thornyness....
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-pair-14-inch-split-cowhide-welding-gloves-488.html
Ben

Hey, Bass Can I ask what is invloved in growing one of those fruiting cactus' in our area?