Papaya Season

The papaya tree in my yard has been bursting with big papayas this year, but so far I haven't had any. I let the kids badger me into picking a papaya they swore was ripe about a month ago, but when we cut into it, it was hard and bitter. When we cut it open, they sheepishly admitted their mistake. It was really cute. They ate it anyways.

When I went away for MST I told my some people they could have any papayas that ripened while I was away, but there was a miscommunication and they ended up eating all the ripe ones for the next few weeks! There's that language barrier again.

That left one big papaya ripening on the tree. I had been watching it to look for colour changes, and I called dibs on it to my neighbors. I saw some orange patches and it felt a bit softer, but I wanted to be sure. Today when my neighbor kids came over they assured me it was ripe and ready to eat.

I took a chance, cut it open and... it was ripe! The knife slid right through, and the fruit flesh was soft and sweet. We ate it right out of the peel with a spoon. Mmmm...

I made them wait and pose for a photo before we started eating.

As we were finishing up, a whole group of kids came by so we let them have the rest. Fanny ate the fruit down to the peel, as we do in Malawi, then decided to wear the peel on her head like a hat. She is so funny!