Apache Junction resident Jean Groen has written two cookbooks devoted to ingredients that can be gathered in the Arizona desert, Foods of the Superstitions Old and New and Plants of the Sonoran Desert and Their Many Uses. Her co-author is Don Wells.
Here is her method for making juice: Pour 1 inch of water into a large soup pot, add the fruit and bring to a boil; then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool. Using a potato masher, crush the fruit. Working over the pot, scoop the pulp into a clean old pillowcase. Take the pot outside and hang the pillowcase up so the juice drips back into the pot. When most of the juice has drained through the pillowcase, knead the cloth to extract as much juice as possible. Divide the juice among clean storage containers. It can be refrigerated for up to two weeks or frozen for later use.
The most industrious prickly-pear harvesters use electric juicers. These eliminate the need to cook and mash the fruit, and they quickly separate juice from seeds and pulp. This method produces a thick, pulpy juice. Groen stores hers overnight in a large pot to clarify: The dark nectar settles to the bottom, while pulpy, frothy "mousse" floats to the top. Wolterbeek scoops off the mousse, simmers it down to a thick syrup and uses it as a base for barbecue sauce.
