Prickly Pear Cactus –
This spiky plant’s nickname is “paddle cactus”. The Prickly Pear has two types of poky thorns; the big, long ones that you see, and small, short ones that you can’t see. They both hurt.
One time, on a dare, I stuck my finger through the big spines and touched the cactus. It hurt because I couldn’t really see the small spines and so I couldn’t get them out. That was how I learned about the small spines, and I learned not to touch a cactus, even if it didn’t look like it had spines on it.
Prickly pear fruit is big and dark purple-red. They are called “tunas” and you can eat them just like the Comanches and pioneers did. The fruit tastes really good, like a mixture of strawberry and watermelon. I have made Prickly Pear jelly with my mom when I was younger and it is very good.
Once at the fair, I saw a sign for Prickly Pear Lemonade. It sounded good but it was five bucks so I didn’t get it.
