I purchased a house not too long ago that has a lemon tree in the back yard. Last
weekend I picked about half of the lemons and now have two large boxes of
the fruit. Total weight comes to 62 pounds or about 23 kg. Now the question is
what can be done with 62 pounds of lemons?
Yes, I’ve made lemonade out of a few that I picked a couple weeks ago. Also,
I’ve tried mixing lemon juice with tonic water (not bad, might be good with
vodka added). Squeezing a lemon onto broiled fish used up one more.
Any suggestions as to what can be done with the rest?
A few years ago I lived in a house with the most prolific lemon tree: despite lemonade, marmalade and lemon curd, I wasn’t able to put even a minor dent in the number of lemons we had available.
So every morning, I’d pick a shopping bag FULL and take them to work to share with my co-workers. Every morning for a fuggin YEAR. Lugging a 10kg bag via public transport. Nearly wrecked my arm and shoulder muscles, but by golly they were appreciated! Sweetest, juiciest lemons ever was the general consensus.
That bloody tree never stopped fruiting, but I miss it now. Last week I needed a couple of lemons for a dish I was making, and the freakin’ supermarket wanted $1.25 EACH for them. Bastids. :eek:
(I’ve recently moved to a new abode, and the first thing planted was a dwarf lemon tree…it’s flowering like crazy now, so hopefully, in a few months, I’ll be drowning in lemons again!)
Anyway, when life has given you so many lemons your face turns sour at the mere mention…give 'em away.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only person thinking of that.
From what I’ve seen, the usual answer, already given, is take them to work. If you’re a good salesman, you can sell them.
A buddy of mine makes limoncello. If you don’t mind some work, zest a few dozen lemons and mix the zest with high proof liquor (vodka or grain, if available).
I think there are organized programs in Southern California to collect fruit from backyard trees for food banks and soup kitchens. Perhaps something like that is in your area as well?
Fill a milk crate with them and put it in your car and let 'em get soft. Chuck them at drivers who cut you off or do other stupid shit. If you have a sunroof, just chuck one out at high speed every now and then, for shits and giggles.
Circa 1988, a guy was dissatisfied with a new car he purchased from a Philadelphia Mainline dealership. He parked the car across the road from the dealership and glued dozens (hundreds?) of lemons to the car. There were posters explaining about his “lemon”.
The dealership tried suing, but the car was parked legally.
With some galvanized nails and copper wire, you can make batteries. Put enough in series you might be able to charge a cell phone. Or fire up an LED in case of a power failure.
Lemon curd. It’s just lovely stuff and useful for lots of things. My favorite cheesecake is lightly flavored with lemon and then covered with about 3/8" of lemon curd. It tastes like spring.
make lots and then you can can it in jars and store it for a long time.
They cover just about every possible way to make it in the comments, so you can try several different ways. I haven’t tried this yet, but it’s on the to-do list.
<– smiley lemon