You took the word right out of my mouth!!

Have no experience, but found three websites which maybe of interest. Apparently they are best harvested when very red and ripe, just about to fall off the plant and starting to be of interest to birds.

http://www.tucsoncactus.org/pdf_files/recipe-prickly%20pear%20harvest-process%20and%20punch.pdf

http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/opuntia.html

http://recipeview.com/Jam/Jam85.htm

Sounds like fun.

Susan

some/maybe most types of pear don't particularily taste very good, basically if small, hard, and dark red not very tasty. I've never eaten any native here in NM. If you do have access to good ones, an open flame to burn off the spines and aereola works well and then it's like eating a fig. The tunas are usually harvested when small, before spines have formed while the 'leaves' are still present, again our native types aren't the best for this but I find folks planting the better types around Las Cruces.
Rev

http://cactuspro.com/timbres/afficher__426.html is a good picture, you remove the ends and outer layer. We love the prickly pear (prickley pear) cactus pear fruit. Our store gets them from Frieda's.

Here is a link that might be useful: how to peel a prickly pear

Peal the skin , eat the magenta part spit the seeds in a jar add water let stand 3 days , rinse, clean then dry then plant,sell or trade the seeds .

You all beat me to it. Carefully! I thought the tuna was the new leaves, which is edible. I don't know if you can burn the spines off the fruit?
Father Nicholas. Perhaps another way to get the spines out of the fruit-- Use a tweezer and pull them out. I work as a volunteer at the Huntington Gardens, San Marino, I have eaten a few and they were very good. You may try to take the seeds out with a tweezer before you try and eat the fruit. Make sure they are soft to the touch, also fertilizer may sweeten them for next year, the fruit can be red, yellow, orange. Some are larger than others depending on the species. If you need receipes I will be glad to send them to you. Norma

after chilling, place fruit in paper towel, cut in half, scoop out the seed cavity, scoop out the flesh. Be careful of the seeds, they are like little pebbles. The ones people grow around here seem to have a melon/mulberry taste to them. Not the best fruit I've had, but not too bad, especially since they seem to be growing everywhere.
Enjoy,
-Ethan
ps. no recipes for jam or candy but tuna melnomel (sounds bad but it is a fruit mead) is very interesting.