A story of old-fashioed bartering in today's world:

Having never gardened until 2002, I blithely put in two Meyer lemon trees from 3-gallon pots. This was in addition to having a rare Meyer seedling bush that was (at the time) about 6 yrs old, which gave a few bucketfuls of lemons once a year.

But heck, we like lemons; my niece, nephew, sister, and brother like lemons. I was working; everybody I worked with loved Meyers too, and begged for the excess fruit.

Fast-forward to 2013. Our Meyers are mature. I always have at least a dozen lemons year-round; spring harvest (now) is an avalanche of at least 50 lbs. of fruit per tree. That's a whole lot of bucketfuls, yikes!

Everybody still loves Meyers, but half my family moved to the East Coast. No longer can I drop off a bucketful; now I have to mail a small 8 sq. in. box to different addresses. I'm retired, and all my neighbors also have lemons - different kind, but still, they're inundated as well.

My freezer is full. My family here is swamped. My friends pretend they don't see me coming, LOL. Then I get an inspiration!

There is a delightful young lady who has started a pie bakery business in our town. A local restaurant gave her a corner of their space, and five days a week with limited hours, she sells her pies.

And her pies are TERRIFIC. Top quality ingredients, and nothing is oversweetened. The fruit tastes like fruit, the citrus flavors are bright and zingy, the cream pies are real cream and eggs. The crusts are to die for, either French butter pastry or barely sweetened crumb crusts.

One of her best is a Meyer lemon pie - just butter pastry crust and Meyer lemon curd. It tastes like the recipe I use to make my own lemon curd.

I emailed her through her website and asked if she was interested in taking the excess fruit. I've always resisted doing these commercial exchanges before. But we think so highly of her pies, we were very happy she said "yes, of course! I just ran out of Meyers so your timing is perfect!"

We just came back from dropping off 10 gallons of Meyers. Now we have a credit for three free whole pies, and I can hardly wait until next week when she has her coconut cream pie again. Oh boy!!