Rivenrock Gardens Cactus Company posted on
Facebook:
"We like to pickle the unopened flower blossoms of some of the Opuntia plants. We did our first blossom picking yesterday and made some quick bread and butter pickles. The rest of the blossoms are sitting in a lime-water bath to get ready for their big debut in a more extensive recipe."
"Cactus blossoms sitting in a lime-water bath, in prep for canning into a pickle recipe."
"These will be triple-rinsed tonight, then packed in ice-water for a few hours. Then into a mix of boiling half vinegar and half sugar along with dill and a bit of kosher salt. Removed from heat and allowed to sit overnight, then reboiled for 30 minutes tomorrow, and packed into oven-sterilized jars with boiled lids and heat-treated in boiling water for 15 minutes.
I will sometimes omit the boiling water bath, as I usually start eating them a few days after making them, and I'll eat the small batches we make in a short time. In those cases they stay in the refrigerator once they cool down a bit. The Bread and Butter pickles are usually that method, as I eat them so fast."