When life gives you lemons...

When Life gives you Lemons Make Lemonade!

On the other hand, when a friend gives you lemons, make lemon juice!  The other night there was a knock at the door and a friend we go to church with had a big bag of lemons that he had harvested to give us.  Prior to that, a co-worker friend blessed me with some lemons off of her tree.  Very nice!  We like lemons.  One can never have too many lemons, or friends, or friends with lemons.

We don't want them to go bad, so we juice them and freeze the lemon juice.  We never buy lemon juice.  Here's how we do it:  Tricia rolled up her sleeves, got out a knife, her juicer (manual, not electric), a sieve, a Pyrex measuring container and some ice cube trays.  She rolls the lemons against the cutting board with her hand.  This causes the lemons to release the juice easier.  Then she cuts the lemon in half and starts juicing.


Action shot of capturing fresh squeezed lemon juice

 Notice the sieve over the Pyrex measuring container that strains out the lemon seeds.



Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

Working hard

Then we pour the pure lemon juice into ice cube trays and then we put them in the freezer.

Here is the finished product.


Frozen lemon juice

Now we bag it up in gallon Ziploc Freezer bags.  

Bagging up the frozen lemon juice cubes

The finished product!  By bagging up frozen lemon juice cubes, it lengthens the life of your lemons and you can pull out just the amount you need for any recipe that calls for lemon juice or just for making lemonade.


Bag 'o Lemon Cubes

We like lemons.  They're chock full of Vitamin C and as everyone learned in elementary school, they prevent scurvy.  No scurvy outbreaks on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.  We cook a lot of homegrown okra and have found that if you pop in a cube or two of frozen lemon juice when you are cooking okra, we have found that the high acid in the lemon juice reduces the slime factor.

Lemon bars, Lemon meringue pie, lemon curd...  We're stocked up for those recipes and more now.