1It's a fruit known by many names: cactus pear, cactus fruit, and prickly pear.
2It grows on several species of cacti which are native to parts of North, Central, and South America.
3Some growers, in addition to selling the fruit, produce a puree which they sell as a flavoring.
4Prickly pear martini, anyone?
5Cactus pear fruit is high in fiber and rich in vitamins and minerals.
6It's sweet and delicious eaten as is or as a natural flavoring in foods and beverages.
7In the Salinas Valley in California,
8the cactus pear harvest begins around late August and continues through early April.
9The fruit is ripe when its skin begins turning red.
10The harvesters wear thick leather gloves to protect their hands from the thorns
11and safety glasses to shield their eyes from loose thorns that blow through the air.
12Tractors haul the cactus pears to the processing plant.
13The fruit first passes over brushes and into a vacuum that removes loose dirt.
14Then through a shower of chlorinated water which kills off bacteria.
15The fruit enters a cold air dryer for about five seconds.
16Then passes through a hot air dryer for 20 seconds.
17The fruit exits completely dry.
18A quality-control team removes any with bruises or other cosmetic defects
19and transfers those cactus pears to the puree line.
20The fruit that passes inspection falls into what's called a singulator.
21(A machine that lines them up in single-file.)
22The singulator deposits each cactus pear into a cup on a computer-guided weigh-and-sort machine
23which classifies each fruit by size
24then applies the grower's price code sticker.
25The fruit then travels on the conveyor belt that leads to the pad and tub designated for its weight classification.
26A worker stationed at the tub packs the cactus pears into a lined shipping box.
27Another worker removes any less-than-perfect fruit that managed to slip through the previous checks.
28Those also go to the puree line.
29On the puree line, the dumper drops the cactus pears onto a conveyor belt system
30which transports them to the crusher.
31The machine crushes the fruit, separating the skins and flesh,
32mashing the flesh into puree,
33and extracting the sweet magenta-colored juice.
34From the crusher, the pressed skins drop onto the vibrating shaker
35while the puree and juice flow through it into a tank below.
36The shaker separates any puree still caught in the skins.
37The skins drop into a bin and are hauled off to be used as compost
38or sold as animal feed.
39Once the tank is filled to capacity with about 400 pounds of puree,
40a pump transfers it to a large hopper.
41A worker releases puree from the hopper to the finisher.
42The finisher's fine screens trap the seeds
43while letting the puree pass through to a holding tank below.
44The seeds are sold to businesses that press them into oil for cosmetic and hair products.
45From the holding tank, the deseeded puree passes through a second finisher with even finer filters.
46Then it flows into a tank for pasteurization
47which kills off any remaining bacteria.
48The puree is finally ready.
49A worker fills a drum which is double-lined with plastic bags.
50She draws four one-cup samples from each drum for quality control tracking.
51Once a drum contains 400 pounds of puree,
52the worker zip-ties each bag separately.
53closes the drum with a lid, safety seals the lid with a lock,
54then put the drum in the freezer.
55The cactus pear puree is sold frozen to the food and beverage industry.
56Which uses it to flavor many products
57from ice cream, sorbet, and gelato to flavored water, wine, tequila, and brandy.