Can you boil to remove opuntia spines?

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insipidtoast Santa Barbara, CA(Zone 10a) Dec 15, 2010

Is it ok to just drop the fruit and pads into a pot of boiling water to despine the fruits and the pads?

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Metrosideros Keaau, HI Dec 16, 2010

Folks here peel them off or burn them off.

This link may help:

http://www.wikihow.com/How-to-Eat-Prickly-Pear-Cactus

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insipidtoast Santa Barbara, CA(Zone 10a) Jan 02, 2011

Yes, boiling works. Whether it's even worth it or not is another question. We were ending up with glochids in our skin for a week after we did this because they were on our clothes, cutting board, gloves, kitchen counters, etc.

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Malus2006 Coon Rapids, MN(Zone 4a) Jan 06, 2011

Metro is right - they actually burn them all over the world so cows and other animals can eat them as they can be weedy in drier part of the world.

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insipidtoast Santa Barbara, CA(Zone 10a) Jan 31, 2011

I also tried burning them off with a lighter, but that didn't look like it worked.

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faeden SF Bay Area, CA(Zone 9b) Feb 03, 2011

I saw someone at a farmer's market a few years ago using a cheese slicer to cut them off. Don't know if it worked or not.

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