You know you're in Texas when...

1. Everything is written in English AND Spanish.
2. You don’t know what half of the menu is at the Mexican restaurant.
3. It is 98 degrees in October.
4. What’s a sweater?
5. Everything is brown with a touch of green.
6. The leaves don’t change color. They just fall off.
7. Geckos come in your house, and you don’t mind because they will eat the roaches. (Which we     haven’t seen yet. Thank you, God!)
8. If your name is Laura Dawson, you don’t have any allergies. (Another thank you, God!)
9. It never rains.
10. And the piece de resistance, you can buy a Cactus Pear at Wal Mart. Allow me to elaborate.

Victoria and I went to Wal Mart today to get some salad. In the produce section, I notice the strangest thing I have ever seen. We looked at it, picked it up, and I started trying to figure out what it was. Avocado? No. Artichoke? No. Then I saw the tiny little tag above it...Cactus Pear. I started picking them up wondering about them. A lady came up to buy a few. I asked, “Are you buying these?”

She said, “Yes.”

I said, “What are these?”

She said, “These are pears from a cactus.”

I said, “How do you eat them?”

She told me what to do. She said there were seeds inside. No biggie. There are seeds in watermelons, strawberries, cherries, kiwi, etc. I can handle seeds. I asked her how to know which is a good one to buy to try today. She picked out a cactus pear for me. I thanked her and went to get a baggie for it. Good grief! I noticed my pinkie had started to itch. When I looked, I had teeny, tiny, almost invisible hair-like stickers in my pinkie! Oh my gosh! I’d been prickled! I didn’t follow Baloo’s advice and handle the prickly pear by the claw! Victoria had stickers in her hand, too, but she didn’t itch because she isn’t allergic to things like I am. Needless to say, I was ready to get out of Wal Mart with my prickly pear and go home and wash my hands.

I got home, washed my hands and worked on getting the stickers out of my hand. Victoria did the same. It was time to try it!



To eat a cactus pear, you cut off both ends,
  


then slice the skin down the middle

and peel the skin away.

It is ready to be eaten. I cut the pear in slices for us. The result...
  

  
The taste itself was okay. It didn’t really have a taste. I did not like the seeds AT ALL. They were like small pebbles, and there were a ton of them. It was very difficult to get to the fruit. Victoria’s opinion...  

“Yuck!”

There you have it. Now you know how to eat a cactus pear next time you pick one up at your local Wal Mart!

By the way, I found two more stickers in my hand a few minutes ago. Good grief! These tiny things are practically invisible and make me itch like crazy!

Happy hunting for prickly pears!

Laura