It's A Fall Thing...

Guess what time of the year it is? Prickly Pear Jelly time!!!! Last year Katie, Laura and I all had the idea to make some home-made gift baskets for Christmas presents. We chose a breakfast theme and made biscotti , hot coco, scone mix, peppermint marshmallows and what ended up being the home run of the gift, Prickly Pear jelly. We had no idea that is was going to be as popular as it was, our friends and co-workers told us they hoarded it like gold in their homes, only taking it out for extreme cravings and special occasions.
We decided since it was such a hit last year, we had to do it this year! So last weekend we all went up to my parent's house in the Hualapai Mountains (pronounced Wal-a-pie) to start our 2010 jam-making weekend. (Full Disclosure: I am using some photos from 2009 to show the process, we made such a large batch this year that by the time we got to juicing stage it was too dark outside to see.)

The first thing we have to do is pick the Prickly Pears, much easier said than done, because Prickly Pears grow on this:

Yes we totally harvest the fruit from Cacti. What great Arizona girls are we? We are able to harvest the fruit just a little down the mountain from where my parents live. While it is fun it can also be dangerous. Cacti have a way of sneaking up onto your ankles and tend to hurt, a lot. Katie yelled out this poetic piece during the harvest trip, "SON OF A NUTCRACKER!!!!!!"

We picked a ton of Prickly Pears this year. We wanted to make a nice big batch for our Christmas gifts and to have a little leftover for ourselves. It took us about an hour playing pioneer women, traipsing through the woods until we filled up our bucket. After washing the Prickly Pears you have to cook them for a couple hours.

This is where the incredible color starts to form. The water you boil them in turns the most amazing shade of pink/purply/red ever. I don't even think I know a name of a color to describe it! We cooked two ways this year. There were two pots on the stove and then a giant pot we cooked outside on a propane stove contraption that we use for deep-frying our Thanksgiving turkey.

How cute is Laura? After the Prickly Pears are cooked down, the real process starts. If you haven't figured it out by the name of the fruit or Katie's cursing, Prickly Pears have prickles on them. Since we love all our friends and this isn't Nightmare Before Christmas, we spend a good chunk of the time sifting the pulp and stickers out. The first step is to chop up the whole pears into smaller pieces.

Once they are nice and chopped up we place them into a food mill to get as much juice out as possible.

This part is fun and messy! We then take the juice from under the food mill and begin the straining process.

The process is very time consuming and it takes all of us working a couple hours straight to get it done. We don't mind though. It is fun to chat with my sisters and my mother. Many times the conversation turns to if we think we could make it should the world suffer some major disaster and we lost all modern technology. Consensus is if there are no Zombies or Mutant creatures, yes. Otherwise, Jesus take us now!

The juice goes twice through a strainer and finally through a cheese cloth. This way all you are left with is a delicious, syrupy Prickly Pear Juice. The next steps are pretty generic in jelly making. You add your sweetener and pectin, bottle them up and can away. We ended up with about 52 jars of Prickly Pear Jelly!
I love this time of the year because it really is the starting off point to our Holiday Season. Our next event is our "McLarty-Jaramillo Annual Fall Festival Weekend." This includes all the fun October activities we love like carving pumpkins, a ghost tour and a visit to Schnepf Farms. When my sisters get married there are going to be a few more hyphens in the title though!

Even though Phoenix is suffering a heat wave, I am so ready for fall time. I pulled out my first Halloween decorations and can't wait for the cooler weather. This Holiday Season will be my first one as a married lady and I am actually hosting Christmas at my house! Luckily my family and my in-laws are wonderful people who would be happy if all I made was pizza and salad. As for the Christmas baskets this year, you are just going to have to wait and see what the theme is!

Happy Fall!
-Mrs.J