When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When health inspectors cite you for it, get famous.

Julie Murphy, a 7-year-old Oregonian, set up a lemonade stand on July 29 at an art fair in northeast Portland. County health inspectors shut her down, however, telling Julie and her mother, Maria Fife, that they needed a temporary restaurant license, which costs $120. The penalty for selling food without a permit, they warned, was $500. At 50 cents a cup, that’s a lot of lemonade.

Others at the fair urged the family to give away the lemonade, and they wrote “free” and “suggested donation” on Julie’s sign with a marker. But the inspectors were unmoved.

Julie left the fair in tears.

This, of course, is the kind of incident that the Internet was made for. “Oregon Fascists Shut Down 7-Year-Old’s Lemonade Stand,” one blogger blared on a pickup of a local newspaper article. Another posted photos of police officers and federal agents in riot gear with the caption “WHERE’S THE REST OF THE BOOTLEGGED LEMONADE?”

On Thursday, Jeff Cogen, the Multnomah County chairman, called Ms. Fife and her daughter to apologize. “My kids sell lemonade, and I sold lemonade as a kid,” Mr. Cogen said in an interview.