During the summer months, the cactus pear fruit ripens and needs to be harvested in bulk before the birds destroy them. The best way to deal with lots of harvested fruit is to freeze them. Wash and package them in zip-lock bags before freezing them. Keep the fruit frozen until you are ready to process or preserve them : Blanch in boiling water and peel the skin off, just as would be the procedure with fresh fruit. It may be possible to remove the skins from defrosted fruit without blanching them first. The flavour of the fruit is retained in the freezing process; however the texture is severely affected. Fortunately, liquidizing the whole fruit to remove the seeds will eliminate this problem. The fruit may be frozen for up to a year.