You can eat prickly pear cacti leaves and fruits. But, see those TEENY little spines surrounding the big, obvious spines? Yeah. That’s why you need to be circumspect about just yanking one off the plant and eating it.
Photo taken in January 2010 at the New Hanover County Arboretum in Wilmington, NC.
The Garden of Words 
I knew you could eat prickly pear cactus but I’ve never tried it. I’ve never been anywhere where it was an option. What does it taste like?
I tasted a piece of prickly pear when visiting ECHO Farms in North Fort Myers, Florida. I thought it tasted like green pepper. Sort of bitter.