Oh my God!! Where's the whipped cream and can I have a slice?? Wow

If you lived closer, you would have been invited over for a slice!! And your Mom!

Hey, what about me? How can you tell when they are ripe?

Interesting to see someone else growing Ponderosas. Mine are also several weeks from being ripe....great that you got an early pie! I have about 0.65 acres and I'm fast becoming over run with Ponderosa trees Seedlings come up where ever I compost the pulp from juicing and I just transplant them to a sunny spot in the yard. Aside from making green lemon pie, what is your favorite way to use your fruit??

looks delicious, Laura. Do ponderosa lemons taste different from a Eureka? Never seen one at the store.

Vladimir, do you need to ask ??? ;-)

John...this is my first experience with them. I think lemon bars would also be great with them, not to mention marinating fish or poultry. It is great you have so many! I have another two left on the tree that are ripening...one is almost yellow. Hiro, they are MUCH bigger than eureka and mine had quite a bit of juice even though they were not ripe. I don't know how the flavor of the juice or pulp compares to eureka, but perhaps someone can chime in. I also took the juiced halves, sliced then, and froze them. I use them in my diffusion water pitcher to give the water a nice flavor.

John, that is a brilliant idea about the zest in the ice cubes. I will do that when I have extra zest. I do definitely use the zest. This pie actually had too much zest in my opinion and although it tasted good, did have a strong flavor. Next time, I will use lest and just freeze it like you suggested. Thank you! I'll look up a candied peel recipe also.

How can you tell when a ponderosa lemon is ripe - or any lemon for that matter? Just by the color?

I have always gone by color with lemons. With limes it's more tricky...they should have a little give when squeezed. The ponderosa lemons turn yellow. One of the two remaining on my tree is almost totally yellow.

Here is another recipe for your lemons...hoping you get to make pie from a ripened lemon for a change :>) and you may not find the ripened zest so distracting...

This recipe will make one small pie so I usually double it.

Prepare your pie crust so it's ready for the filling....graham cracker crust works great with this tart pie! Grate a tablespoon or two of zest from your lemons, and juice enough lemons for 1/2 cup of juice. The fresher the juice and the zest, the brighter your pie will taste. Beat one room-temperature package of Philadelphia cream cheese with one 14oz can sweetened condensed milk....this is the hard part so beat until the mixture is thoroughly blended! Now add the lemon juice and zest to the mixture and blend until it's just combined...it will begin setting up just as soon as the acidity of the lemon juice begins to curdle the mixture. I recommend that you take a minute to clean off any zest that is clinging to your beaters and stir it into the filling....it's a good pie without the zest but a great pie with it!

Pour the filling into the pie shell and refrigerate for a couple of hours....decorate the top...if you like...whipped cream works good...or just cut and eat.

Laura - Yummy pie ,you certainly make a lot of delicious desserts . I had the same problem , strong winds broke a branch of persian lime with 4 almost mature limes . I made some pickle with Ginger n Thai peppers .

Thank you John! I am always looking for good recipes and will definitely try it!

Dev...it's a bit tough to have yummy desserts around, but we manage ;-). I'm sorry about your lime!

Laura, happy to share and hats off to your for making your own crust!

You guys are making my mouth drool everytime I gone here. Ha

Thanks guys! John, I have an neighbor from England that I think is 83. She is a great friend of mine....she came over one day and taught me. I'm still not nearly as good at it as she is, but practice makes perfect!