I greatly miss the delicious variety of apples we were able to get in both Ohio and Illinois, but each place has its specialties. In Arizona, one of them is citrus (and we’re also eating soft, delicious dates from Yuma, Arizona.) Driving home a few days ago, I noticed a neighbor had a table on the sidewalk in front of their house filled with plastic grocery bags of something and big box as well. I made a swift U-turn and discovered the fruit was lemons, mostly enormous and all delicious-looking! I took a good bagful and when the next day arrived with bags still available, we took another one.
As the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. So far I’ve made lemonade for my parents as well as for us and as the pitcher is waiting to be washed, another round is in the near future. I really think I should do something with the peels and I have to look up some other recipes soon to make the best use of them, the best use except for photos. 🙂 I also make a ginger-lemon drink that’s quite good warm or cold and of course very healthy as well.
This Graphite app is made by BeCasso but the photo is the one above by me.
This, that and the other thing 
Lemons are so expensive here almost $1 each and imported from USA
I would never have thought that, Pauline. Here a lot of people have citrus trees in their yards and before all the development, the area was full of citrus groves. I wish I could share the bounty.
janet
They are out of season here at the moment Janet. It used to be traditional for people to have big back yards and always had a lemon tree, but with the advent of them being demolished to make way for huge, in my mind, ugly Macmansions. Or 2-3 units with no garden space allowed or wanted, just a tiny courtyard. Also in the subtropics, where I live, lemon trees do not thrive, getting many problems, so after persevering with mine for years I finally pulled it up and replaced it last year, with a native finger lime. Hoping it will be easier to care for. A friend does have a prolific lemon tree and, in season, shares them with me and all her other friends.
That seems crazy. Surely they must grow in Australia? Couldn’t you have one in your garden?
They are very abundant, but out of season at the moment. My lemon tree never thrived, always being attacked by mealie bugs and other nasties. So pulled it out and replaced it with a finger lime, a native, that I hope will be healthier and less bother. It is a very spiky specimen.
Limes are lovely. I must try and grow citrus trees once we can move about more. There is a fairly close nursery which specialises in them.
The finger lime is quite different to the regular lime. I’ve never tasted them, but they are one of those exclusive high end restaurant foods . Known as pearls or lime caviar I’m looking forward to mine bearing fruit next year.🤗🤗🤞
They sound intriguing and tasty.
I like limes, too. 🙂
These are not regular limes but an Aussie native with unique look.
I was wondering the same thing. I saw lemon trees for sale yesterday at our Costco. They were about 3-4 feet high and just under $30 dollars.
Did you buy one?
No. I’m thinking about it. I bought a tomato plant and a very cool aloe vera plants.
Same here; it’s just not citrus season. ☹️
☹️ my lemon was constantly attacked by mealy bugs and other nasties needing constant attention. So out it came, so no lemons in the garden now. But have replaced it with a native finger lime. Hoping it will need less coddling
Drat. Limes are also good. 🙂
Ooh finger lime! I’m wondering if I could get one to grow here (blame Aus MasterChef 😂😂)
I think they should be ok if you give them a warm northern facing, sunny area. They are sub tropical. I’ve never tasted them so I’m looking forward to the first fruits developing.
Thanks Pauline
Wish I could shoot some over to you both.
😀🙏
I like this edit a lot!!
I do, too, but not quite enough to pay so that I don’t get their logo at the bottom. Let them get the credit and we can enjoy the results. 🙂
I know! I enjoyed it!
Ohhh that makes me think about Italy…….
🙂 I understand that. Yesterday I was somewhere that had lemon trees for sale, but as we’re in a rental house, I’m not going to bother.
Yum!
And the scent is wonderful as well.
I’m sure
How great to get fresh lemons. I knew Arizona was a great place to buy citrus.
We have a lemon tree as do lots of people in Perth ..there is only so much you can do with them! Very useful for my hubby’s cocktail ! 🍸
You can juice them and then freeze the juice in ice cube trays (and then in freezer bags) to use later bit by bit. Lemonade is probably the best way to use a lot although these are so large that four will make a cup of juice! Not that I mind. 🙂
I think there would be too much sugar in the lemonade !
It’s homemade and I like my lemonade tart, so that’s how it comes out. Hardly any sugar per pitcher. 😉
What is your recipe
Make a simple syrup from 1/2 c. sugar and 1 cup water by heating and stirring until sugar is dissolved. Put in fridge to cool. Juice enough lemons to make 1 cup of lemon juice. I sometimes make more like 1 1/4 c. Combine and add as much water as you like to make it taste good. I don’t recall how many because I have a pitcher that takes just the right amount and I don’t know now how much that is. I’d say 6-7 cups of water? Start with less, taste, and add if needed.
Sounds delicious
It is. You can easily adjust the sugar.
Now you have my mouth watering for a tall glass of cold lemonade, Janet.
Definitely have to make some more today. I like mine on the tart side rather than very sweet.
I’m with you there, Janet. The sour version just quenches your thirst so much more than the sweet.
I have never had fresh lemons. I’m guessing that lemonade is very good.
It’s delicious. 🙂
Lemon drizzle cake? 🙂 🙂
I thought you stopped eating cake?
Frank, don’t be silly! 🙂 🙂
Me? Silly? I can’t imagine.
Custard soon…. 🙂 🙂
Enjoy!
Also yellow! I have a photo somewhere 🙂 🙂
Well stop commenting, find it, and post it!! 🙂
No hurry! You’ll have already been for your walk. But I can take a hint- bye for now 🙂 🙂
Ha, ha. Like that would actually happen!!
Sounds good to me.
Love your photo and what the graphic did with it. Fascinating!
Glad you enjoyed it, Frank. It’s fun to play around with editing sometimes, but I have to be careful not to use up too much time when I have other things to do. 🙂
Now I’m impressed because you really have a NEIGHBOR. 🙂
We live in a suburb so lots of neighbors, although we haven’t met many of them, just see them in passing. These people are a few houses down and across the street and I’ve never seen them at all. I did write “Thanks” on their sign, though. (It was a piece of paper, so I wasn’t destroying anything.)
Yum! I can almost smell them! Candied Lemon peels? Zest them and freeze the zest for cooking, freeze some juice in an ice cube tray to save frozen for recipes? Lemon tart?
I wondered about freezing the zest because that would be really handy and not take up much space in the freezer. I’ve frozen juice before but the problem is that our freezer, an under the fridge one, is FULL! 🙂 I’ll have to try the candied lemon peels and lemon tart sounds delish!!
Our freezer is under the fridge too. They don’t hold that much I’ve discovered over the years. We have two refrigerators/freezers I can’t tell you how dependent on the second one we’ve become. Both freezers are well stocked.
We’ve been talking about a freezer to go in the garage. It would probably labor during the summer, though. But I noticed our neighbors with 6 girls have a fridge and a freezer in their garage, so it must work.
We keep our fizzy water, and soda and some food in the fridge out in the garage. It’s nice having cold drinks and not take up space in the house fridge.
Great use of the lemons!
And so good! Just made another batch.
janet
These are great lemons! Here we can only buy very small ones. We have one squeezed every morning with water to wake up our taste buds! You could preserve lemons. I have recently bought a jar as they are used in a Moroccan recipe (before I found the jar I have just used fresh lemons). Not sure what they are preserved in but I am sure you can Google a recipe!
Thanks for linking it to my yellow month – I actually have a bowl of lemons coming up during the month!
Jude xx
Aren’t search engines great for looking for recipes (and other things as well)? We use DuckDuckGo, which doesn’t track where we search. I know about preserved lemons so I may look into that. Not all these lemons are so large but many of them remind me of those I saw many, many years ago on Naxos, Greece–almost the size of grapefruit!
My OH uses that search engine too.
Some of the large citrus fruits have very thick skins so the amount of juice might not be much better than the smaller, thinner skinned ones.
Our landlady brought us some lemons not long ago that were thin-skinned and not very tart. I found out they were Meyer lemons, which I’d never bought before because they’re often expensive. They don’t work well for lemonade, though. Not tart enough.
I have heard of those. I think they grow well here.
The cool shadows on the sunny, warm lemons is lovely. They add movement to a still life.
Thanks, Mary Jo. I like shadows and thought they were a nice contrast to the bright yellow.
janet
I’ve used citrus peel as a household cleaner. I can’t quite remember the recipe, but I think you soak the peel in vinegar and use the liquid, diluted in water.
I have to get serious about finding recipes for whatever use so that I don’t end up losing the lemons. Just made more lemonade and that’s pretty darn good. 🙂
I totally get that! Found this https://www.thankyourbody.com/31-ways-to-use-lemon-peel/
Thanks. I just put that aside to look at later.