The other day while shopping at Zion Market, I noticed these fruit that were called cactus pears. They did look like cactus and had a pretty red skin. I decided to buy a couple to try them out.
I wasn’t really sure how to eat these. I cut one in half to see what it looked like inside. I was surprised about how red the flesh was. It was even prettier inside than it was on the outside. However, the majority of the inside seemed to be seeds. So I decided to google the fruit for the proper way to eat it.
I found a couple of videos and articles about catcus pear. They suggested to cut off both ends and then peel the fruit. (They also warned about the pears having thorns and to handle with a towel. Luckily for me, these didn’t have thorns. I had handled quite a few at the store when choosing mine.) However since the flesh layer without the seeds is so thin, I didn’t think this was a good idea for the cactus pear I had. Instead, I scooped out the flesh with a spoon, and spit out the seeds.
The fruit wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be. Pears usually are pretty sweet. Perhaps I just didn’t choose good ones. One of the videos I watched on how to eat cactus fruit named a bunch of fruit that cactus pears taste similar to. The one I identified with was sour watermelon. That is what mine tasted like. Like watermelon that isn’t sweet. It’s too bad because these fruit were so pretty. Maybe I’ll try again some other time.
