The prickly pear plant, growing in abundance in Malta, has one main use locally - as a wind breaker. You see it growing sturdily along the perimeters of fields, protecting vegetables from the wind.
The tasty fruit of the prickly pear cactus - the plant is so common here it was one of the symbols in the national coat of arms the Mintoff Labour government created - is as exotic to people of cold climes as the pineapple is to us.
It is mostly left to rot, however, or given as fodder to pigs. Only an insignificant amount is harvested.
But a vegetable and fruit seller in Zachary Street, Valletta, is importing the fruit, selling it for 20 cents each.
The fruit imported from nearby Sicily is free of bristles and comes wrapped in a royal red semi-transparent wrapper with gold lettering reading Fichi D'India senza spine - prickly pears without spines.
Fichi D'India literally means figs from India. As a matter of interest, in Gozo the prickly pear plants are popularly referred to as qasab t'Indi, which literally translates as reeds from the Indies.
Frans Grech tal-Mazaka, from Qormi, is one of the owners of the greengrocer in Zachary Street. He said the prickly pears sell because the fruit is being sold out of season.
"We put the fruit on sale for the first time last year, at 17 cents each.
"The fruit will be available till Christmas and with the greater awareness among the public on how important it is to eat fruit as part of a healthy diet, people buy prickly pears to add to the variety in their diet," Mr Grech said.
The Grechs have had the shop in Zachary Street for the past 100 years. One of the more famous customers they have had in their time was then Princess Elizabeth, today Queen Elizabeth II, who in the 1950s used to shop in Valletta for brussels sprouts and mushrooms which were imported from the UK.
Mr Grech believes it would not make sense to try to export the prickly pears because "there are many exporters of the fruit around the world and the market is saturated".
Locally harvested prickly pears - there are mini varieties of the plant in Malta - were selling during the summer months for 30 cents a kilo, the itinerant vendors patiently removing the skin for customers.
Although the fruit is delicious, many avoid it, believing that the fruit's pips would constipate them. However, the fruit is full of fibre, and drinking water should prevent constipation.
Joe Vella, executive chef at Hilton Malta, said he includes prickly pears in the menu particularly during the summer when the hotel organises Maltese nights once a week.
The fruit goes down well with Maltese clients. Visitors go for it once the type of fruit is explained to them, he said.
"We use a lot of fresh fruit in our kitchen and prickly pears make a fabulous dessert after the fruit is cleared of pips and cooked.
"When prickly pears are out of season we import them from the UK at £1 each. At times, we offer the pears as an accompaniment to Parma ham," Mr Vella said.
Agriculture consultant Joe Borg said that what the Sicilians do to force the plant to produce fruit late in the season is to knock off the plant's first flowers in spring, and then water the plant to encourage the growth of new flowers, giving a seasonally late crop of fruit.
In Sicily, Mr Borg said, the prickly pear cactus is cultivated just like any other fruit tree, and the fruit is served in restaurants and hotels.
"The catering industry should bear in mind that visitors from central and northern Europe especially, and even tourists from warmer climates, would welcome prickly pears in November and December.
"Cultivators ensure that the plants they tend have as few spines and seeds as possible. But with age the plant tends to have more seeds in its fruit as the plant's main purpose is regeneration."
Farmers, who also use the plant to bar access to their fields, also feed the leaves of the plant to ruminants because they contain fibre.
Because prickly pear plants contain so much water sheep have been known to survive for up to eight months on them alone.
The only drawback is that the plant's stems fall off and take root in next to no time, pushing out local vegetation, which is detrimental to plant life in valleys especially, Mr Borg said. But that situation can be easily controlled in the fields.
In America, prickly pear pads are also eaten by people. Sold in stores under the name "Nopalito," they are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. Jams, candies, and other fancy foods are made from prickly pears.
The prickly pear cactus is thought to have originated in the tropical Americas, and it is native to semi arid parts of the US, Mexico and South America. It flourishes in the Mediterranean, in Africa and in Australia.