Prickly-pear cactus

9/13/09: Do you know about prickly-pear cactus? Ever try to eat one? Click on the picture to the left to see a close-up of the bright red fruit. I'd heard they were edible, but as I soon found, caution is highly advised. Yes, portions of the cactus' fruit is edible, but you pay the price if you're not careful. I broke off one of the red, rather blistery feeling fruit from the cactus. I saw the spines on the cactus itself and didn't fear the fruit. But beware, the fruit bears fine, hairlike spines that seemingly leap straight into your skin. My fingers were full of the stinging nettles before I ever cut into the fruit. I did eventually cut the fruit in half, hoping not to collect more spines. I scraped out a bit of the fleshy, moist inside onto my knife. With the fruit came a few of the seeds from the very center. I took a bit of the mix into my mouth. It was wet and sweet. Not sour at all. But the seeds are like little pebbles. Very, very hard little seeds. They had to be avoided as well as the harsh exterior skin. The only reason to tackle this chore is if you absolutely had to have some sort of nutrition. So although you may have your prickly-pear cactus fruit, but the reward is small, the hazards great, and really a bit too much work for the price.