Lemon Juice

I have a little Meyers lemon out in front. Its about 5 feet high and 7 feet in circumference. Its a great tree because I don't have to get on a ladder to harvest it and it produces just the right amount of lemon juice for our canning and cooking needs. Its also nice to have some fresh fruit in the winter right from my backyard.

Some people say that it makes lemons as sweet as oranges. (My neighbor) Some experts say that it is a cross between the two. One niece thinks its the greatest since it is the source of lemon pies and filo lemon shooters.

This year I was afraid that the really cold weather around Thanksgiving had wiped it out. Or at least the lemons that were on it. It effectively wiped out the fall growth of the lemon tree which although slows down in the winter continues to growth throughout the cold season.

While there were a few that took the hit and had a black spot or two that disintegrated the peel, most have survived. Through the Christmas season this tree sported its own ornaments. The little tree was coming through with big yellow lemons all over it.

Today I decided to pick a quantity of lemons and use my lemon squeezer to extract the juice out of them. Its a mechanical squeezer that you see on the street corners of Italy throughout the summer. It squeezes the half of the lemon into a cone shaped press with holes on it to catch the juice and leave the seeds. A glass measuring cup picks up the juice and facilitates the pouring of the juice into the ice cube trays. 2 cups of lemon juice fill up one ice cube tray.

Before any squeezing can be done, there needs to be a place secured in the freezer for the lemon juice ice cubes to form. They may be stacked on top of each other if you vary the form so they don't nest.

I picked a batch and headed indoors.

The total yield was 6 ice cube trays or 12 cups of juice. There are still lemons on the tree for lemon picatta or lemon pie.

Its great to have a useable lemon tree!

: ) Pat