Bob you are not alone here. I cans see growing the NZL but that is it.

Steve

I'm not a huge lemon fan, I like some lemon juice on fish, there are some cocktails that a lemon tastes good in but thats about it. My wife on the other hand puts lemon juice on lots of stuff from eggs to fish to salad.....she is Salvadorian and Latin cuisine uses a lot of lemons.

For a good reason Bob lots of cocktails and salad dressings.

Brian

Brian, living way up north, do you use ice cubes in your cocktails? Anyway, one good point! Snackered often,me? Not lately. Thinking about it, maybe this New Year!

With all The stress we put on ourselves this past year, maybe we all should relief ourselves and all get snackert at year end. K, might think it’s a good idea.

Sorry Laura, had to throw this one in.

Lol Bob you would think us northerners would have developed some kind of allergy to ice cubes but nope love them in any beverage. Bob lol I think it will be one big snackert between now and New Years Yippee . We deserve don't you think so tie one on my friend .

Brian

Brian, Amy already started, I think , she is nowhere near to be found. Mad at us maybe? I didn’t do it, I think it’s you, Brian!.

Bob it's probably the both of us ! I'm guessing she's probably going crazy in the kitchen getting ready for the big day . Bob glad that your relaxing with a good beverage . Life is good real good isn't it . Enjoy my friend.

Brian

I am one of those lemon fanatics Bob. I'm not sure actually. I am totally overwhelmed with lemons at the moment...I do like them to cook, but have more than I know what to do with. I love the way the trees look though.

I like the aromatic pleasant aroma of lemons.

Meyer doesn't really have as much aromatic aroma or flavor as other lemons, but many people prefer it because it is sweeter. As far as I'm concerned, however, lemons were meant to be sour. That's what they are used for.

I think the ordinary Lisbon lemon is a great variety, although I haven't tried some of the other uncommon lemon varieties.

Also there's something about the color yellow, I personally feel, that is lighter, cleaner, brighter than orange - a happy color.

However, don't make me choose which family of citrus is my favorite, each group has their own worthwhile attributes.

Lemon water, lemonade, lemon muffins (make sure to use the zest of the lemon), lemon juice in soups, lemon with fish.

Bob, you might want to try another lemon besides Meyer in cooking.

As I see it the question is not what do you do with lemons, it is what do you do with hundreds of lemons that are produced by just one mature tree. My in ground Meyers lemon is only 4 years old, yet this year had over 50 lemons on it, I have not idea how many it will have next year. Of course I have the same debate about my other 8 in ground citrus trees, though it is much easier to come up for uses for the hundreds of Satsumas or the 36 baseball to softball size Cara Cara oranges that were on my 3 year old Cara Cara tree this year.

Ike, you are right, I do have too many trees, 4 lemon tree’s, that’s 2 too many. 2 Meyers and 2 S/T ‘s. S/T, young tree had only one on it.

Btw, Lee/Nova mandarin tasted pretty good, somewhat like a Page. Trying the others but haven’t done that yet. Wednesday I’ll be busy cooking. Sorry, have to do that once in a while, a far/East coconut chicken dish, a standing year end / birthday request, with a Cherries Jubilee finish. Btw, it has lemon/ lime in it. Lime zest is used just to start working the pan( no of taste). That’s my yyyyop!

All I have is an In ground NZL on C35, an 8.5 gallon NZL on US897, and a 7 gallon NZL on sour orange. I like pictures.

NZL/C35 13 months ago. no current pics with me

New Zealand lemonade#1 · More Info

New Zealand lemonade on US897 rootstock. · More Info

New Zealand lemonade on Seville sour orange · More Info

I will be getting about 40 lemons this year between the 3 trees.

Steve

I wish I had a REAL lemon tree. I remember as a kid, some relatives came to visit in the summer and brought some real lemons with them to make us kids a big pitcher of ice-cold lemonade...the real stuff - and with SUGAR. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. How many lemons does it take to make a pitcher of lemonade? Maybe two or three?

Now I do have a 'Meyer', but Meyer doesn't taste like real lemon to me. I may replace it some day.

NZL's Don't taste like real lemons either. I'll keep the NZL trees. I'll pass on any Meyers to.

I will never get “ connesuer” status about lemons, I will still eliminate 2 trees. No problem with Meyers so far. Use all the fruits for our self or give away, no problem there.

Bob, how did the ST lemon taste? My tree exploded in growth this year, but hasn’t flowered since last year :( And has yet to produce any mature fruit. I can’t wait to try one.

I use lemons (zest and juice) in about half of everything that I cook. I love the aroma as well as how aesthetically pleasing the trees are. I think I’m up to 18 lemon trees? Will definitely be thinning some out after tasting.

Kelley, you are not playing it fair, Hubby is a pilot and can get lemons from Italy any time. Why do we have to suffer, having to deal with mediocre stuff. My wife closest friend has a son that flies for Fed x as a corporate pilot, flies all over the world is coming in for a month vacation, maybe I could yank his chain through his mom. All we need is a couple of sticks, that’s not asking too much!

The S/T to me, taste just like an other lemon but a little sweeter, taste fresh. It might be better next season. Tree’s are looking very good. Btw Kelley it is an Italian lemon, so, how it got in Arkansas it is still a mystery. is your low flying machine out of the garage yet??

I agree with Bob about the ST taste. I did a taste taste a while back between several lemons (I don't remember exactly which of the other "true" lemons) - Meyer, ST, maybe Lisbon, and maybe Villafranca. Of them, the ST and Meyer were most similar. My favorite (but not by far) was the ST. The juice of both tasted similarly, with the Meyer being slightly (very slightly) sweeter. The rind of the ST is much thicker and oily so better for zesting. They lemons are huge too. However, the meyer has more juice per lemon. The ST had plenty of juice, just not as much as the meyer.

Oh man did you hit my current topic of interest! For me, lemons (Ponderosas) were free since I was planting seeds and the fruit I ultimately grew had seeds which came up in the compost and I transplanted those all over the yard and gave them to friends and co-workers. Now I'm wiped out with lemons, I'm running out of people to give them to, my deep freeze is crammed with lemon ice cubes and two-cup containers (much from past years), I have a loaded wheel barrow still in the garage, and probably another wheel barrow or two of lemons still in the trees. Ponderosas aren't good as iced-tea glass lemons so there isn't a big restaurant market for them. I plan to thin my trees in the coming year to cut back and to help with harvest access. I planted them too close together and now they are very difficult to reach. in addition to who knows how many bushels I have picked during the past month or so, I picked two wheel barrow loads yesterday and boy were my hands messed up from all the thorn scratches! I LOVE the aromas from the bruised peel of a Ponderosa. That's the best part, but I'm way beyond reasonable now that most of my 21 trees are producing at least a few lemons and the more mature ones are making bushels apiece. I think I have the makings of a nightmare now.

I'm kind of envious of this thread... I live too far north to experience a glut of home-grown lemons! Or limes for that matter.

I do try to take advantage of the citrus when is cheap around here though- usually around this time of year. I like to cook with them, make lemonaid.. mmmm.

Another option for what to do with a lot of citrus is dehydrate it. You can slice it rind on or take the zest off, and then peel and slice just the flesh for drying. Though lemons and limes are my faves, I also dehydrate clementines and oranges, and sometimes blood oranges or grapefruit. Thick skinned stuff like grapefruit works better peeled before slicing.

Whole slices can be tossed into pitchers of water or aids, or into warm mulled drinks. A slice or two in the jar when making pickles can be great. Layer with your baked fish or stuff a few into your poultry before roasting. Put some into your stocks along with your boquet garni. Peeled slices can be crushed and put into almost anything you would normally put lemon in.

Rehydration is kind of optional or not, depending. Most of the time I'm using my dehydrated stuff in wet situations anyway.

John, your post made me laugh! I am definitely not as bad as that lol! Beesneeds, thanks for the suggestions. I'll start putting them in my water from now on to start using them up.

You can also preserve lemons in salt. Either straight up or get an extra tasty kick in by smoking your lemons before packing them in salt. Like this:

https://www.wellpreserved.ca/smoked-lemons-preserved-salt-recipe/

Smoking slices is an option before dehydrating too if you like to get some lemon and smoke together like grilling out flavors. Smoking or grilling lemon halves before juicing is also nice to build in flavor in fresh lemon use :)

Also dehydrating- you can dehydrate lemon juice to make powder like the expensive TruLemon stuff in the stores. Takes longer and is fussier than dehydrating just the flesh slices- but yields a pulp-less product.

Lemon zest can be used to infuse culinary grade vinegars, oils, sugars, alcohol and salts.

If you like to be a greener cleaner... you can take distilled white vinegar and make a nice smelling citrus vinegar to clean with. Great way to use some of your juiced lemons if you got too many rinds for the compost pile. Pack a jar with un-zested coarsely chopped lemon rinds, fill with the vinegar.. and let sit in a cool, dark place for a couple to few weeks. Strain the solids out, and use the vinegar like you would usually for cleaning. Brass, copper, chrome, and a lot of pots an pans that have deep grease or tarnish can be cleaned using salt, and half a lemon as your scrubber to clean your item.

Lemons (and oranges) have also traditionally been used studded with cloves and sometimes anise for lovely pomanders to scent your home or other spaces. If you have lavender and/or rosemary growing around, those can be nice additions to studding a lemon.

Wow...Thanks again. I saved your thread!