Soon after, the rains came. In record amounts. It seemed they would never stop, though eventually they did.
I noticed that a bunch of papaya trees, small, tender, and fragile, had come up where my sickly oak had been.
Space was a problem, so I selected the strongest and sacrificed the rest. They grew all summer, spreading out their lovely branches, which are really nothing but giant leaves.
I admired them from a distance, thinking how lovely to have a papaya grove in the middle of Austin. It wasn't until I inspected the trees close up that I realized the little things nestled in the crook of every branch were nothing less than baby papayas. Back then, they were no bigger than walmuts. This is what they look like today.
If the weather holds, if we don't get a freeze in the next few months, it's possible we may have some tree-ripened fruit on our plates.That will be a first!
3 comments:
My stinky little papaya is producing little blooms by the hundreds but no papayas. It better do a more productive job next year or I shall uproot it.
Nice! Even if the weather turns, you should look up some recipes for green papaya salad (it's a Thai thing). I've had it, and it is invariably delicious.
So cool! Judy's friend said the papaya trees are like weeds in Hawaii. Maybe you will get enough papyas to supply all the GREAT independent grocers in your area!
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