Bring your appetite to the annual Prickly Pear Festival in Superior Aug. 26 – a Saturday that starts at 7 a.m. with a foraging excursion guided by experienced pickers who will demonstrate how to safely harvest these forbidding fruit of the Opuntia cactus, and how to remove the cactus spines and process the tasty, healthy, magenta flesh within.

Other popular events of the day include a pancake breakfast fundraiser (with prickly pear syrup, of course!), and local restaurants have a prickly pear fruit or “nopal” cactus pad special on the menu that day – from prickly pear ice cream at Felicia’s to margaritas at Porter’s and other local taverns. Superior has innovative cactus-based cuisine you can sample and small-town hospitality for this year’s 12th annual event. Look for a variety of vendors on Main Street and at Superior Town Hall, and guest speakers from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the Chamber of Commerce office, on a wide array of topics related to responsibly and sustainably foraging desert plants from nopal to mesquite. Want to request a vendor application, or have a festival question? Email pricklypearfestsuperior@gmail.com or call/text (520)827-0692.