Prickly Pear Cactus

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.

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