A friend of my son bought some property near me that is going to be cleared for apartments. It has a HUGE (7-8 ft tall and wide) lemon tree on it. He told me to pick all I wanted. So far, I have a 5 gal. bucket full, but will be going back for more. I am going to juice a lot of them out, but will fill my freezer rather rapidly doing that. Any other suggestions?
You can put the lemons in preserves and we used to put lemons in a jar with salt and keep it on the roof. It is a home remedy for sore throats. Lemons can be dried and candied. Lemons can be preserved with other spices.
You can also do lemon curd, lemon bars, lemon meringue pie. Then there is always regifting. They might make good early Christmas presents.
Growing your own tree for the future is a good idea too.
I usually have plenty of takers for lemons. There is one food bank that accepts fresh fruit. Where I volunteer, we have been collecting fruit from the orchard all year and so far have donated over 5,000 lbs of fruit to the local food bank.
People put them on noodles, lemons to flavor water, on fish, limes are preferred for Mexican dishes but lemons work as a substitute. They are excellent on fruit like papaya. Lemons are good for the skin and I have a friend who uses lemons, limes, bilimbi and other stringent fruit in the bath. It is good for the dark circles under the eyes and black elbows.
Happy gardening in Hawaii. Gardens are where people grow.
Yes, I will be using them for baking, but I was wondering what to do with them otherwise. I love lemon with chicken and fish and Lord KNOWS I love it with Rum! And there is an organization here that feed the hungry every day for free and they rely mainly on donations-I have brought them my garden excess when I am done with what I want. I found a recipe for lemoncello that sounds great. I have never heard of lemon jelly, but someone on another site said he had made some. Just picking brains! Several years ago I had a lemon tree growing in 1/2 whiskey barrell. Eventually a winter freeze killed it. I have no desire to grow another one-I know too many people with lemon trees already (my brother is one-though his tree is not near as big as this one!) And I've been told that when he clears the property, that tree will stay-
If you like salty tart cracked seed. These are some recipes you can try. I don't know if you will like it. It is Chinese candy here. You cannot eat too much at one time or it will make you sick.
I usually make lemon merigue pie with the meyer lemons but it only uses one lemon because it has so much juice. There are always lemon bars, lemon pasta, lemons with fruit or fish.
You can also use lemon juice as a cleaner. They are good for cleaning aluminum, and freshening the disposal and even as a whitener for the laundry.
Citrus peels, doesn't matter what kind can be used as deterrents for cats. You have to keep replacing them as they dry out but cats don't like the smell.