Today I started my first attempt to make vinegar at home, using some nice beautiful ripe prickly-pear cactus fruit that I espied on a plant at the parking lot down by the beach.
The ingredients are simple: prickly pear cactus fruit; sugar; nonchlorinated water. I googled and found this video. Very helpful!
How to make pear cactus vinegar (Creative Adventures channel on YouTube).
For this little first batch I am doing an experiment, which departs from her method in that I did not peel the fruits. And also did not do anything else to remove the glochids. I just cut off the wide and of the fruits.
This is based on my experience making smoothies and wine from prickly pear fruit back when I lived in Texas. The glochids, the tiny fine little spiny things you don’t want to touch, seemed to get dissolved by the process so it removed the need for that considerable labor of removing them.
We will see how it actually goes, with vinegar, when I taste the vinegar with caution in a month or so.
In the meantime, if you try this, I recommend you exercise caution and follow one of the methods for removing the locus. Other creators use a torch to sear them off. Or boil the fruit.
She has also posted an update video, which I haven’t seen yet but will share in the comments below. I have now subscribed to her channel Creative Adventures.
Update on the pear cactus vinegar: 2-week point (Creative Adventures on YouTube).