Homeschool Fiction

Once again, it’s time to harvest prickly pear fruit.  Here are a few photographs of my daughters enjoying picking this year’s harvest. We’re going to have a big crop this year (over the next two or so weeks), so if there is anyone local interested in picking some, please contact me.

I’ve really been enjoying the flowers this spring.  Here is a view from my dining room window (through the glass and screen) of the Santa Rita prickly pear blooming, plus a variety of photographs of other prickly pear blooms around my land.  I’ve also added a photo of my daughters with my mom and one [...]

All of theses photos were taken on my land in southern Arizona.

Due to popular demand from my “Enchilada Casserole” post, here is my Vegan-Friendly Prickly Pear Barbeque Sauce recipe. Once I realized that we were going to be able to get a large harvest of prickly pear fruit this past summer, I started reading up on various things people do with prickly pear fruit. [...]

Here is the last of Zoë’s series of Haiku poems for the summer of 2008. Certainly she’ll write more later.
Click here for PART ONE and here for PART TWO.
Tortoise
Turtle, terrapin
It is neither one of those
The desert tortoise

Coyote

Howls out my window
Even though they’re far away
They seem very close

Barrel Cactus

Sunset red flower
Short and [...]

We’ve been fortunate enough to actually see wildlife eating the pads of some of our prickly pear cacti. We especially love watching the rabbits eat it. They take a bite into the outer rim and then eat only the inside part, leaving a circle behind. Bugs, on the other hand, eat it [...]

Prickly Pear Jelly
I haven’t had the greatest luck in the world preparing jelly, so here is my “What to do when the recipes don’t work” directions.
Prepare syrup as pectin package indicates. Basically you need a lot of sugar, the fruit itself, and pectin. With this made, you supposedly just need [...]

Vegan Prickly Pear Ice Cream

2 cups vanilla soymilk
1 cup prickly pear syrup

Stir into a Stainless Steel Midas Non-Motorized Ice Cream Maker. Stir (or whisk) after 15 minutes. Stir after another 10-15 minutes and serve. This handy bowl makes perfect ice cream, sorbet, gelato, or Italian ice every single time. We absolute [...]

Prickly Pear Syrup

Prickly Pear Juice (approximate how much you have)
Fruit Pectin
Florida Crystals Natural Sugar

To learn how to make prickly pear juice, check out PART THREE. The pectin will have recipes inside the box. Honestly, you have to just experiment with the amounts. Every time I’ve made syrup and jelly, it [...]

Prickly Pear Margaritas

1 cup prickly pear juice (or syrup)
1 1/2 trays ice
1 1/2 cup margarita mix (this is the easy way out) - lime juice from scratch is even better
1 cup tequila, optional if you want yours alcoholic

Blend all ingredients except ice. Slowly add in ice until perfect. Delicious!