Beautiful lemons! Impressive!

Huge fan of Ovgolemono Soup! Recipe link below... uses juice of 2 lemons. If you thicken it, it's wonderful over Greek stuffed grape leaves.

Also a fan of Skeeter Pee... A fermented wine made from lemon juice.. google that.

And there is always lemonade!

OH! One of my favorite things is "Spa Water." I discovered it at a high end spa. Very healthy and delicious. They sliced lemons and cucumbers very thin, and put them in icy water. So refreshing! I keep it in the fridge in a nice pitcher. Guests love it!

I've heard you can clean things with the juice. The acid evidently cleans shower soap scum, but I like to use my trusty pumice stone. Fast, easy and works. But lemons do smell good. They are ok, unless there is a ton of scum!!

Suzi

Here is a link that might be useful: Greek Egg-Lemon Chicken soup - Avgolemono

This post was edited by desertdance on Thu, Jul 11, 13 at 13:26

Oh man! I'd use some juice in a large glass, add water and a packet of Sweet and Low and ice. Enjoy every day.

I have had this saved in my email forever and I didn't delete it because you never know! But now I have two lemon trees, so I'm copying it here.

DON'T WASTE THAT LEMON PEEL
Many professionals in restaurants and eateries are using or consuming the entire lemon and nothing is wasted.
How can you use the whole lemon without waste?
Simple ... place the lemon in the freezer section of your refrigerator. Once the lemon is frozen, get your grater, and shred the whole lemon (no need to peel it) and sprinkle it on top of your foods.

Sprinkle it to your whisky, wine, vegetable salad, ice cream, soup, noodles, spaghetti sauce, rice, sushi, fish dishes. All of the foods will unexpectedly have a wonderful taste, something that you may have never tasted before. Most likely, you only think of lemon juice and vitamin C. Not anymore. Now that you've learned this lemon secret, you can use lemon even in instant cup noodles.
What's the major advantage of using the whole lemon other than preventing waste and adding new taste to your dishes?
Well, you see lemon peels contain as much as 5 to 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself. And yes, that's what you've been wasting. But from now on, by following this simple procedure of freezing the whole lemon, then grating it on top of your dishes, you can consume all of those nutrients and get even healthier.
It's also good that lemon peels are health rejuvenators in eradicating toxic elements in the body.
So place your lemon in your freezer, and then grate it on your meal every day. It is a key to make your foods tastier and you get to live healthier and longer! That's the lemon secret!
Better late than NEVER!
The surprising benefits of lemon!
Lemon (Citrus) is a miraculous product to kill cancer cells. It is 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapy.
Why do we not know about that? Because there are laboratories interested in making a synthetic version that will bring them huge profits. You can now help a friend in need by letting him/her know that lemon juice is beneficial in preventing the disease. Its taste is pleasant and it does not produce the horrific effects of chemotherapy. How many people will die while this closely guarded secret is kept, so as not to jeopardize the beneficial multimillionaires large corporations? As you know, the lemon tree is known for its varieties of lemons and limes. You can eat the fruit in different ways: you can eat the pulp, juice press, prepare drinks, sorbets, pastries, etc. It is credited with many virtues, but the most interesting is the effect it produces on cysts and tumors. This plant is a proven remedy against cancers of all types. Some say it is very useful in all variants of cancer. It is considered also as an anti-microbial spectrum against bacterial infections and fungi, effective against internal parasites and worms, it regulates blood pressure which is too high and an antidepressant,combats stress and nervous disorders.
The source of this information is fascinating: it comes from one of the largest drug manufacturers in the world, says that after more than 20 laboratory tests since 1970, the extracts revealed that:
It destroys the malignant cells in 12 cancers, including colon, breast, prostate, lung and pancreas ... The compounds of this tree showed 10,000 times better than the product Adriamycin, a drug normally used chemotherapeutic in the world, slowing the growth of cancer cells. And what is even more astonishing: this type of therapy with lemon extract only destroys malignant cancer cells and it does not affect healthy cells.

I make no claim to the validity of the above! Just posting it because you asked!

Suzi

Yikes. Suzi, you are correct to question the validity of that email/article.

It wanders completely off the reservation as soon as they start talking about lemons being 10,000 times stronger than chemotherapeutics. Although there are nuggets of truth (limonene is being investigated for its health and potential anticancer benefits), most of the claims appear to be pure fabrication.

Suzi, John, the idea of storing the zest in the freezer sounds like a good idea... and those lemons look great, I think I need a glass of lemonade!

Here is a link that might be useful: Here is a good summary

LOL! Thanks for all the good suggestions Suzi, Dave, and Scott. The recipes look good...have to check into the lemon wine. The peel is certainly one of the best parts of a lemon and surely is helpful at warding off and maybe curing disease. I am frustrated I can't capture the flavor or the aroma of the oils freshly emitted from the peel. I candied quite a lot of the peel. The Ponderosa has a thick peel perfect for candying. Lemon pies I have tried were MUCH better with a tablespoon of zest mixed into the filling. I tried capturing the bright lemon oil aroma by thinly slicing off the peel and extracting the oils in vodka. It took on a pretty yellow colr and smells good. I also added some of the sliced zest to a quart of raw honey. It turned out pretty good and didn't ferment the honey as I was afraid it might. My little sister makes an excellent lemonade using 7-UP instead of water and of course reducing the amont of sugar that a water recipe would call for. Lemonade is great but you really have to be careful how much sugar you add to your diet. I am also skeptical of some of the content of the message Suzi shared but freezing and grating the whole thing is an option I hadn't considered. By the way, I have read the peels make great compost and are high in phosphorus if you aren't able to use it in your foods.

Thanks again for the suggestions...is it really a bad thing when life hands you lemons?

Wow, that is a lot of very unsubstantiated claims there, Suzi. I know you posted your "no claim to validity", but I would like to admonish forum members to please disregard the last paragraph about lemon peels being "10,000 times better than Adriamycin". That is simply hogwash, and as you notice, whomever was the original author failed to provide any links substantiating this wild claim. Being a nurse, I have to post and make sure folks are aware that this is a bunch of malarkey. Obviously, if this were the case, we would see new chemotherapy products made from lemon peel. Which we do not have on the pharmaceutical market at this time. Now, that doesn't mean that research isn't occurring at this time, exploring the pharmaceutical properties of citrus, lemons, lemon peel, etc. And I would be very excited to see that citrus and its components have some place in disease treatment and cures. But, the above information is erroneous, false, wildy presumptive and profoundly inaccurate. Not to mention potentially dangerous and even life-threatening. As always, check with your doctor about making any changes to your medical regime before abandoning it in replacement of eating lemon peel! As Tracy would have said on '30 Rock', "That's Crazy!!"

Patty S.

The motto of my company... If life gives you lemons, pray they are Meyers.
BTW, do you know the juice yield of the Ponderosa lemon?
Meyers, which I believe to be the juiciest of all citrus yield 65-70% juice by weight. In comparison the Eureka rarely exceeds 30%; and the Valencia orange is usually about 42-45.

Johnmerr: LOL, I like the motto! The % juice content of Meyers is crazy high! Since Ponderosas are a citron cross and have a relatively thick peel, I would guess they are in the 30-40% juice by weight range.

Johnorange: The 7-UP lemonade idea sounds interesting, I may have to try that.

I haven't done a weight or volume measurement to determine relative percentage for juice of the Ponderosa but after juicing hundreds of them I have found they easily average a half cup of juice per lemon. I use a mechanical reamer style juicer and there isn't much waste. Yes, the peels are very thick so the production by volume or weight is probably lower than a meyer. Speaking of the peel, there seems to be a misnomer about which part of the peel is bitter. Some say don't zest too deep or you will get the bitter white part. Maybe there is a bitter middle layer but the most inner part of the peel isn't bitter. If you candy the peel, you use all of it. There IS a water changeout during cooking so that recognizes there is a bitter component but there is no need to do any scraping or slicing to make candied peel.

A wonderful way of using lemons is by making Limoncello. I do not like vodka, but after I made the limoncello, the taste was so smooth and lemony, that you have to watch out not to drink too much. (That is to say, for someone like me who drinks very infrequently). I think it would make a great Christmas gift.

Another great idea is to make lemon pickles.

Soussan.

Most of my Meyers that I bring to my house(s) goes for lemonade... the classic recipe: 1 part juice, 1 part simple syrup, and 4-5 parts water depending on your taste.

I always keep simple syrup in the refri for that. In case you don't know, simple syrup (a chef's and bartender's staple) is made from one part sugar and one part water; heat until the sugar is totally dissolved, and store. Hint: a cup of sugar and a cup of water makes about 1.3 cups of simple syrup.

For whole lemons, check these out:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Preserved-Lemons-231570

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_preserved_lemons/

http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/tipsandtechniques/ht/make_lemons.htm

Happy eating!

P.

One correction..I double checked with my sister..she prefers to use ginger ale when she makes lemonade, not 7-up as I stated above. I think she uses roughly a cup of lemon juice in 2liters of ginger ale and sweetens to taste.

One year we did a mega pruning of an old and very over grown tree. We had mega amounts of lemon juice too. I put it in empty clean water bottles with simple syrup and froze them.

We had a year of wonderful easy lemonade.

The classic recipe for lemonade... best, of course if made with Meyer lemon... 1 part juice, 1 part simple syrup, 4 to 5 parts water/ice according to your personal taste.

Johnmerr, I wonder what kind of flavor enhancements could be had by pouring the lemon juice through a ball of lemon zest before adding it to the lemonade mixture. Lemon juice has a fantastic flavor, perfectly captured in lemonade but I feel like we fall down on capturing the aromas released from the peel. I tried extracting it in vodka. It turned it a nice yellow color and smells pretty good but I just don't like alcohol.

Are you able to recycle your peels to your orchards or do they cause potential for pests and disease? They are supposed to be a great soil additive. Maybe I'll start a citrus peel discussion to get some input from others.

Hi Johnorange,
would you consider sending me some Ponderosa lemon seeds for postage stamps? I can't find a tree so would like
to start from seed. Thanks Please let me know.
Love your pictures on gardenweb. Such huge lemons.
Sharon

You don't mention where you live, but if you're not in one of the citrus states outside of Cailfornia, you can purchase a Ponderosa lemon at Four Winds. If they are out of stock, be patient, they will have more stock, shortly.

Patty S.

Here is a link that might be useful: Four Winds Growers - Ponderosa Lemon

Just FYI, preserved lemons are usually made from Meyers. A friend of ours has a Ponderosa tree, though, and I've noticed those lemons are milder than the Eureka/Lisbon grocery-store variety.

Also, it's usually spelled Avgolemono for the name of the Greek lemon/chicken soup, not Ovgolemono. We have friends who are allergic to rice, so we use orzo pasta instead, which works just as well.

Here's one recipe for Chicken with lemon and fennel. One Ponderosa would probably equal three Meyers!

Chicken Braised with Meyer Lemon & Fennel
A lidded cazuela, cocote or other terra-cotta casserole is ideal for this dish, but any casserole with a lid or Dutch oven will do. The flavors blend together during the slow cooking, as the fennel and chicken absorb the flavor of the lemon. From cookbook author Georgeanne Brennan.

1 large or 2 medium fennel bulbs
3 Meyer lemons
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
6 chicken thighs, with or without skin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup green olives (optional)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons grated Meyer lemon zest

Trim the stalks from the fennel, reserving the lacy greens (chop them for last-minute garnish). Slice the fennel bulb lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Slice these lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Set aside.

Cut the lemons in half, then cut each half into 3 pieces. Discard the seeds. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of lemon cubes. Put the lemons in a bowl and sprinkle them with the salt. Add the chicken, pepper, oregano and garlic and turn to coat. Set aside for about 30 minutes.

Heat half of the olive oil in a casserole or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add the chicken, and lightly brown, turning several times. This should take about 10 minutes. Remove the chicken and set aside.

Add the remaining olive oil and the fennel to the casserole. Cook, stirring, until the fennel is nearly translucent, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the lemons and optional olives, turning them a few times, then add the wine and water. Scrape up any bits clinging to the pan, then return the chicken to the pan. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook until the chicken is tender and the fennel can be cut with a spoon, about 45 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking, mince enough of the fennel fronds to make 2 tablespoons. Combine this with the lemon zest and set aside. To serve, transfer the contents of the casserole to a serving bowl or platter and sprinkle with the fennel fronds and lemon zest.

Serves 4
Per serving: 265 calories, 23 g protein, 19 g carbohydrate, 12 g fat (2 g saturated), 86 mg cholesterol, 730 mg sodium, 8 g fiber.

++++++++++

There's also this one, from a long-ago GW member. It's very good. This is exactly how he published it:

Sol's Lemon Garlic Chicken

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs, such as thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil and/or oregano
S & P to taste

1 3½ pound fryer chicken, cut up
25 garlic cloves
¾ cup chicken broth

In a small bowl, stir to combine, the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, ¼ cup of the herbs, and salt and pepper (you can marinate the chicken for 15 minutes ONLY; otherwise the lemon juice will “cook” the chicken).

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Arrange the chicken pieces in a roasting pan, and pour the lemon-herb mixture over. Arrange the garlic cloves all around the chicken, stirring them to coat with the mixture. Roast for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken pieces are golden brown.

Remove the chicken from the pan. Add the broth to the pan and place on top of the stove over medium-high heat. Stir to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, while smooshing the roasted garlic to thicken the sauce slightly. I like to transfer the chicken to a platter, pour the sauce over the chicken and then, garnish with the remaining 2 tablespoons herbs and lemon wedges.

+++++++++++

Note this Ina Garten recipe requires extra-large eggs:

Lemon Cakes
Copyright 2001, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, All rights reserved
Show: Barefoot Contessa

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup grated lemon zest lightly packed (6 to 8 large lemons - Use only fresh lemon juice and zest)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch) loaf pans.

Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, the key to great cakes is beating the butter and sugar until the mixture's until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

With the mixer on medium speed add the eggs, (break the eggs into a dish before adding to the batter to avoid a bad egg or shells in the batter) 1 at a time, and the lemon zest. Sift together the flour, to make sure there are no lumps, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Separately, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cook 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. When the cakes are done, cool for 10 minutes, invert them onto a rack set over a tray and spoon the lemon syrup over the cakes. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

Note: These cakes were glazed with a lemon glaze but the contributor thought the cakes were sweet enough without adding a confectioner’s sugar/lemon juice glaze.