Yeah carmine red!

[rebeccmeister]

I love the PBS Deep Look series.

https://www.kqed.org/science/1992430/meet-the-bug-you-didnt-know-you-were-eating

We definitely had cochineal insects on some of our prickly pear plants in Arizona. If only I'd known how to harvest and process them! As if I don't already have enough other hobbies, heh.

Comments

[larryhammer]

We have some on ours. I've never gotten around to learning how to harvest them. Nor, for that matter, our pears or pads -- not that we have any particularly edible pears in our yard (neighbor across the street does, though).

[rebeccmeister]

There are some pears that are more worthwhile and delicious than others, I've found! And even then, their flavor is so subtle that it really benefits from pairing with lime.

That said, my roommate who used to homebrew in Arizona once made a *phenomenal* prickly pear mead. The mead takes a very long time to ferment, though.

[larryhammer]

I believe that it takes a while ...