I have a couple of Meyer lemon trees and I will in fact eat mature ones ( which develop a bit of sweetness ), peel and all sometimes :).
But my freakishness in that regard aside, I also squeeze them into sodas and tea.
OOh I had a friend in California send me some navel oranges and lemons. I think tangerines too, but I only had eyes for those oranges. I’ve never in my life tasted such a thing. It’s like eating bland tomatoes your whole life then having a slice of fresh home grown tomatoes.
I can’t go back to store-bought oranges. I just can’t be bothered. I’ve been ruined.
Grapefruit. My aunt has a big grapefruit tree in her yard in Orange County and it’s nice.
My parents have an orange tree in a pot in their backyard in the Bay Area. Lemon trees are common enough there, so when I first saw it, that’s what I assumed it was. But my dad proudly corrected me. I told him I thought it would get too cold in the winter for an orange tree, but he figures if they had them for sale at the nursery, it ought to be fine.
As far as I know, the tree is still alive, but I’m not sure if it’s ever provided them with any fruit.
I’m growing a grapefruit tree. I was eating a grapefruit one day and noticed a seed with a root sticking out, so I planted it. It’s about 5 years old now and about 5 feet tall; I’ve repotted it 3 times. It’s an indoor tree, of course, like most of the citrus trees in Oregon. I doubt it will ever produce fruit. It’s just a cool tree I grew from a seed.
See, some lemon trees bear fruit a little at a time, nearly all year round. Perfect, you have a small ready supply of fresh lemons. Or you have bushels of oranges all in one week.
As for " Are you really going to go through the work of making your own lemonade? Are you going to remember to go out to your tree when you’re cooking some fish and squeeze some lemon on it? " the answer is yes. Also lemons are good in diet colas, in tea, and in several other usages where you want just one or two lemons.
I, and some of my siblings, ate fresh lemons off our neighbor’s tree when we moved to Santa Clara. My mother still gawps at that, and has decided that she just wasn’t feeding us enough vitamin C. On the other hand, she went nuts about the tangerines, and they constantly showed up on our table fresh, canned, or jellied.
So I guess it depends on ones target audience.
We have Meyers Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit, Tangerine and Evil Ornamental Fake Orange (that we didn’t plant). If I had to give up all but one, I’d keep the lemon. I use them all the time in cooking, tea, soda, lemonade and baking.
This. I love it when my sister brings fresh satsumas from her tree up with her at Thanksgiving.
Of course not. That would be silly.
First you slice it in half with a sharp knife and you sprinkle some salt on it.
Then you eat it.
MMMMMMmmmm, loves me some lemons!
I have two little Meyer lemon trees in pots on the front porch.
As others have said, they are great for cooking or even alone–Meyers have a delicious flavor.
One of my very fondest memories was when I and my brothers, little kids in Palo Alto in the very early 1960’s, had a Saturday with just our dad (our mom went off for the day.) Dad decided that we should make lemonade from all of the lemons on the tree in our backyard. He got out the Joy of Cooking and we all went to work.
That was the best lemonade I ever had.
I also have a potted grapefruit and two tiny Key Lime plants. I’d like to get a Satsuma, too.
Each spring, all the citrus flowers have the most heavenly scent in the world.
I have always wondered if it would be possible to graft different types of citrus onto one tree, that way you could have a tree that gives lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, all in one! Any chance this is possible?
I probably wouldn’t want a fruit tree. I had fig, mango, lime and grapefruit growing up, and the trees produced far more than our family could eat. I would much prefer a gold tree for decorative purposes.
My mother did this, and I do it too. I usually fish the lemon slice out of my iced tea at restaurants and eat it with some salt. Then I steal my husband’s lemon slices.
I’d like a lemon or lime tree, but what I’d REALLY like is a fig or avocado tree that produces fruit. When I was a kid, my parents had a fig tree in the back yard, more of a fig bush, really, and every summer we had lots of figs to eat. Now, every spring, my husband buys and plants a fig tree for me. And every fall, that tree has died. It’s like a yearly sacrifice or something.
I want a Pink Grapefruit tree. No need to take inside, I peel them and eat them like oranges. They also make tangy marmalade 
Tequila!
I would love to have a lemon tree! Fresh lemonade, lemon bars, lemon tarts, lemon pies, etc. would be amazing to have all year round. Alas, while I love lemons (and oranges too, but those are less versatile than lemons) I loathe the weather required to grow citrus fruit so I will live up north and enjoy my beautiful, snowy winters and continue to buy my citrus fruit at the store. Some day if I am ever extremely wealthy I will own a huge piece of land and build a greenhouse and grow all sorts of things I couldn’t normally grow in this environment but until that day I will buy my lemons 6 for $1 at the store.
If I could have only one, it would be Meyer lemon.
I wouldn’t go with a lemon tree; I’d go with a lime tree. My parents’ home in Los Angeles, where I grew up, has a lime tree in its yard. Sure, lime isn’t something most people would peel and eat, but it makes a great garnish, great juice and makes your food taste better. Yes, Mango, I did go to the tree to pick a lime off. Yes, we did squeeze it over our dinner. To this day, I can’t drink fake lemon/lime-ade because I always remember what ma made for us as kids with freshly squeezed lime a brown sugar.
My second choice I guess would be grapefruit.
Mrs. Septimus has a kaffir lime tree right outside our door. (With a name like mangosteen, you should appreciate that!) The leaves and juice are key ingredients in several dishes, as well as a counterexample to any claim that ordinary lime is the sourest citrus. 
Brilliant choice. The Whole Foods near my house just ran out of tangelos for the season (running roughly February through May). While they’re available, I’ll eat 3 or 4 every day – they’re that good. Now that they’re gone, I’ve had to switch to pineapple; also good, but not as good as tangelos.
Back when my folks lived in SoCal, they had planted an orange tree 18 years ago when my nephew AJ was born. Every year at Xmas, there would be a crop of oranges that we’d give to AJ’s aunts/uncles/cousins. The younger cousins really looked forward to their Xmas oranges. I also have an uncle in San Diego, whom I visited about a week ago. He has a lemon tree in his yard – the lemons were the roughly the size of baseballs, and almost as heavy.