PICK A PECK OF PRICKLY PEARS!

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If you don't have any winemaking equipment and you've never (purposely, at least) fermented anything in your life, you can still put up an acceptable batch of prickly pear vino using the recipe below.

2 gallons of prickly pear juice
4-1/2 cups of sugar
1 pack of yeast
1 jar of water

Start by rounding up [1] a large, clean glass jug with a tight-fitting cork or stopper, [2] a six-foot length of surgical tubing, and [3] some household cement. Then, using a sharp knife, ream a hole in the cork just large enough to accommodate the tubing ... and insert the hose a short distance into the hole and glue it in place.

Next, heat the prickly pear juice almost to boiling in a large pot and dissolve the sugar in it. Afterwards, pour (or siphon) all but a cup of the steaming juice into the glass jug and allow it to cool until lukewarm, then dissolve the yeast in the remaining cup of liquid and add it to the fermentation vessel. Stopper the jug tightly—cementing the plug in place, if necessary to ensure an airtight seal—and run the free end of the surgical tubing into a jar of water, as shown in the accompanying diagram.

Now set the jug and jar in a cool place—60° to 70° F is fine—and wait. Within hours, bubbles will begin to appear in the jar of water, indicating that fermentation is taking place in the jug. The juice should continue to ferment (and bubbles appear in the jar) for the next three to six weeks, depending on the liquid's temperature.

When bubbles have stopped coming out of the tubing, allow the jug to sit undisturbed one more week ... then [1] siphon the wine into a sterile container (being careful not to transfer sediment from the bottom of the fermentation vessel), [2] thoroughly wash the big glass jug, and [3] return the wine to it. (Stopper the vessel as before and—again—run the hose into a jar of water.)

After an additional week, siphon the wine into sterile recycled wine bottles, seal the bottles with corks (you can find the equipment you'll need to do this at any winemaking supply shop, or you can order materials by mail from Semplex of U.S.A., Box 12276, Minneapolis, Minn. 55412 and set the whole batch in a cool, dark place to age. Leave the young wine undisturbed for at least a month before sampling it . . . longer, if you can stand the suspense!

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