The Product

Prickly pear is the summer fruit you was waiting for: fresh, juicy, with a fulfilling consistency, a sweet taste and a lot of health benefits for your body.

The plant of the prickly pear, the opuntia ficus indica, looks as an entanglement of  cladodes, commonly known as pads or stems, and shares the typical features of so-called desert plants. In 1943, Christopher Columbus brought this plant from centre America to Europe, where it found a favourable climate in the Mediterranean area. It is precisely because it is extremely adaptable to semi-arid climates and its powerful roots are strong enough to break up volcanic soil that the prickly pear has spread in the Mount Etna area, where it has become a top quality crop which, in 2003, was the first to be awarded Protected Designation of Origin status under the name of Etna Indian-fig prickly pear PDO.

Spines are the most characteristic feature of the Indian-fig. Those that cover the entire plant measure a couple of centimetres and are white and sharp. A second type called glochid, is found on the fruit itself and are only a few millimetres long; Once the fruits have been picked, they go through a machine that brushes the skin, after which they are ready to be consumed.