How wrong could I be - in fact I needed more like three baskets by the end of my large haul. I was gone most of the morning too. But it was a wonderful day for picking lemons off the tree.
I knew for weeks I had to clean the tree bare, only I was a little too late for when the winds whipped up recently. Under the load of a fully laden branch of fruit, something had to give. Obviously it was this branch.
Not to worry though, as I did plan to thin the branches out anyway. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with our Eureka Lemon. A trip down memory lane - when I first planted our citrus trees back in July 2008. They were my birthday trees and we had fun hunting them down at two separate places. In fact, they were the first fruit trees to ever break ground at Gully Grove!
So many lemons though...what to do with them all? I've already made 2 batches of Lemon Butter, half of which I shared with the neighbours. I'm going to make a third batch to put in the freezer for later in the year. I love it spread on my sourdough toast!
I'm also going to squeeze most of these lemons and put the juice in the freezer too. I'll use it for cooking and I'm going to try my hand at making cordial in summer as well. I won't be able to drink the cordial with all that sugar in it, but Dave won't mind one bit! He loves lemon cordial. Once I juice the lemons though, I'll also try extracting the oil from the skins to use as a cleaner.
I'll report back when I know how it goes.
I did have fun experimenting with my Lemon Butter, in a cake made recently. When I baked it, the butter settled in the middle. But I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out. Flavour wise it was beautiful, but the pan was too deep and the curd too thick in the middle. I'm going to try a thinner pan and attempt a slice instead!
So next time Dave says he's going to water the lemon tree (common speak for "take a leak") I'll have to thank him for all his hard effort too! If the thought of that grosses you out: you don't know what your lemon tree is missing out on. Urine is packed full urea which is basically a concentrated form of nitrogen. Why waste it! 100% natural so 100% good.
Recycling in the garden is what we always try to aim for.
Congratulations on this amazing harvest!
ReplyDeleteCan you zest and dry some of the peel for future baking? Marmalade is nice but thats lots of sugar too.
That is one of the no go fruit trees for our area, unless we keep it ondoors over winter. I think it would be very worth it!
Keep on watering tose trees!
Actually the zesting gives me another idea I didn't think of before. Preserving lemons whole. I've read about it, but I have yet to try it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion. :)
It's a shame we don't have more men in our family, LOL.
mmm lemon butter. think ill have to send my boys on down to my lemon tree as it only has two lemons on it
ReplyDeleteHi Nicole, you're lucky to have the extra helping hands. ;) As long as it's private enough from neighbours, watering the lemon tree actually becomes the outside toilet for the fellas.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little harder for us ladies though, LOL.
I hear citrus can sometimes be a biannual crop, meaning they have one lean year, followed by a bumper crop. Not sure if this follows true with lemons, but it's common with oranges.
I forgot about the Morrocan preserved lemons! They are so good and worth the effort! I did it with oranges too but lemons are much nicer:)
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