Along with quaint little restaurants, clothes boutiques, and Judaica vendors, fancy bread stands are the rage in the Jerusalem market. The prices are competitive with factory produced whole wheat breads, so they may have a real chance at making it in the market.

Most sabra consumers prefer to not deal with the thorns and roadsides and inconvenience, so they simply purchase their sabra at the local grocer or market. These do not have thorns and cost about $1.15 per pound.

The Sabra is in season now, and it is common to see people stopped on the roadside gathering some of the fruit. There are a variety of ways to avoid the hair-like thorns, but none are guaranteed to be pain free.

In Israel, this prickly pear cactus is called a Sabra. That is also the word used for native-born Israelis, because, as the saying goes, once you get past the thorns on the outside, you find a sweet person inside.