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When Life Gives You Lemons… or Green Papayas
Make lemonade… or “applesauce”
One of those sayings in English that isn’t quite translatable into other languages is: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” The phrase is based, we know, on the use of the word “lemons” to refer to something that is a failure or a bad product.
Living in central Mexico, I have two volunteer papaya trees in my yard, the apparent result of organic waste I dug into the soil. Recently, the fruit on one of them started spoiling before it was properly ripe. The branches above had shriveled to nothing. Next I knew, the top half of the tree split off, and down tumbled a half dozen green papayas.
I pondered what to do. I’d already tried to rescue one green papaya in the hopes that it would ripen inside. No luck so far.
As a child of parents born in the Depression, I hate throwing “decent” food out, not even sour milk, which can be used in several recipes. Dried tortillas can be saved to fry and make tostadas, that is, until they go rancid!
