PICK A PECK OF PRICKLY PEARS!

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4 cups of prickly pear pulp
1-1 /4 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of flour or cornstarch
1 nine-inch pie shell pie crust dough

Preheat the oven to 350°. Stir the pulp, sugar, and flour (or cornstarch) together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl, then pour the mixture into the pie shell and crisscross the shell with 1/2"-wide strips of pie crust dough. Bake at 350° until the pie's cover is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

PRICKLY PEAR PIE (VERSION 2)

This recipe differs from the one above—and, in fact, from most pie recipes—in the kind of crust used.

3-1/2 cups of prickly pear pulp
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
1 stick of margarine or butter
1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar (for crust)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Place the pulp, cup of sugar, and water in a saucepan and boil (with stirring) until the sugar is completely dissolved ... then remove from heat and set aside. (This will be the filling.)

To prepare the crust, begin by putting the margarine (or butter) in a large baking casserole and placing the casserole— in turn—in the oven as it preheats to 350°. Then, in a clean bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, and vanilla together and pour the resulting mixture—which should have the consistency of pancake batter—into the hot casserole, atop the melted margarine (DO NOT STIR). Then—in the center of (and on top of) the crust mixture—pour the filling. (Here again, DO NOT STIR.)

Now slide the whole works into the 350° oven. During the baking period, the batter for the crust will actually rise over and completely cover the pie's filling. (Don't take my word for it . . . try it yourself!) The pie is done when the crust is completely brown.

PRICKLY PEAR WINE

If you're a wine aficionado, you may already have one of the many well-advertised winemaking kits now on the market ... in which case you can follow its directions, substituting prickly pear juice for grape "must". (The kit should have a germicide for sterilizing glassware, yeast packages, a hydrometer for determining sugar concentrations, and just about anything else you'll need—save a large crock or jug—to make your own prickly pear wine.)

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