When life gives you lemons… make something else. Tell us about a time you used an object or resolved a tricky situation in an unorthodox way.

Well that problem is easily solved. If you don’t want to bite into a lemon then take a tangerine. Some might call them mandarines. For me all the same.

It is a matter of choice. After my golden oldie sleep I like to eat something, anything, but it has to be worth while eating. I am off cakes at the moment so I have discovered fruit. Who eats lemons? They are sour, difficult to peel and full of seeds, although the seeds can be useful. Plant them in earth in a pot and give them water and after approximately a month they begin to grow. In 10 years you will have your own lemon tree, although I am not so sure about the lemons, at least not in Switzerland.

On the other hand it is now the tangerine season. They appear in our shops in December, towards Christmas, although i keeping with today’s farming methods, they probably make their first appearance some time in September. Ours mainly come from Sicily in Italy. Everything arrives earlier these days, but it is all to do with money.  The tangerines have arrived  with their various romantic names: satsuma and clementine. Not being an expert I do not exactly know which is the better, but I believe the satsumas are the nice friendly ones without too many seeds and the clementines can tend to be a little on the sour side.

The first tangerines are OK, but not so good looking and average size. With time the mega monster tangerines arrive, which I prefer. Why settle for small when you can have big? They are seedless. The tangerine has been deprived of its seeds, meaning it is actually infertile and cannot produce its babies to grow and bear fruit. Perhaps the tangerine is glad, it is an exhausting business being a production fruit. The seedless tangerines can take it easy, no rush, ad they have a good taste.

I hate those tangerines where you take a bite and afterwards have a mouth full of seeds which tend to be bitter if you bite through one. No, the seedless sort are the best. There is another small problem which arrises at home from time to time. I do not buy this fruit, Mr. Swiss does. He is quite good at it. We have a bowl to accommodate the tangerines, which is continuously filled, thank goodness. There is nothing worse than an empty bowl of tangerines, but then it happens

“We only have the small shrivelled tangerines in the bowl. You should eat the older ones first.”

“But they are small and shrivelled and not so good.” is my answer

Mr. Swiss knows what he is talking about. It seems that if I take the tangerines from the top of the bowl, which are nice and big and juicy, those left at the bottom give up and shrivel and lose their wonderful tangerine taste. Thank goodness they do not suddenly develop seeds, as that would be another problem due to my choice of the tangerines at the top of the pile.

All this would not happen if it were lemons of course, because no-one would eat them, although we do have an emergency supply in the fridge. They are reserved for slicing and serving with fish (which seems to be a tradition). Otherwise not exactly the fruit which I would take a nice big bite of and find delicious, wonderful.

So this is how to tell you how to solve a tricky situation when having lemons, replace them with tangerines, but eat the older ones first according to Mr. Swiss logic. I do not, I prefer the nice, new, fresh tangerines, especially after my golden oldie sleep when I sit at the computer and try to think about what to write for the daily prompt. Second time round is always more difficult.

Daily Prompt: Not Lemonade – Let’s eat tangerines