Tanque Verde Ranch's Prickly Pear Margarita

Prickly pear season guarantees two things: a spike in Band-Aid sales, and fresh Prickly Pear Margaritas at Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. This year, for the first time, guests of the country’s largest dude ranch are invited to pick their own spiky fruit from the cacti-laden trails of the ranch’s 60,000 acres of stunning desert landscape, adjacent to the Saguaro National Park.  After harvesting the seasonal fruit, the Tanque Verde Ranch culinary team will lead interactive demonstrations and remove the “prick” from the sweet fruit by carefully de-thorning the colorful cactus fruit with tongs. The ranch staff will then make the sweet harvest into delicious prickly pear margaritas, syrups, and desserts. If you can’t make it to Tanque Verde’s Dog House Saloon for drinks but you’ve got your own cactus fields to harvest, you can try de-thorning and juicing your own prickly pears to make these sweet, bright fuchsia margaritas at your own home-on-the-range.