4 Tips For Preserving Lemons
Of course, there’s the cliché, “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade!” But really, when was the last time you made lemonade from freshly squeezed lemons? I know I don’t have time for that! Besides, you can buy bottles of the stuff at the grocery store, right?
I can’t tell you how many times I bought a lemon just to add a teaspoon of lemon zest or a tablespoon or two of lemon juice to a recipe. And then there were the times that I wanted to add lemon slices to my water or tea. I love doing this. However, I’d often cut up a lemon and put the slices in a container in the refrigerator and forget about them. In all of those cases, I would end up with the better part of a moldy lemon all too often.
Sound familiar? So, what do I do now, when life gives me lemons? Read on…
1. Lemon Zest
It turns out, lemons freeze really well! Instead of using a Microplane and zesting only part of the lemon that you need, you can zest the ENTIRE lemon and place it all in a mason jar. Use what you need and freeze the rest in the jar with an airtight seal. When you need zest in the future, just take your jar out of the freezer, scoop out what you need and put the jar back in the freezer.
If you notice the zest getting a little frozen together, just use an ice pick or a fork and loosen it up. The zest will remain good in the freezer for up to a year. It’s as easy as using spices from your spice cabinet, really!
Who knew it could be that easy!
Tip: Don’t forget to label your jar with a name and date! That way you know what it is and how long it’s been in your freezer.
2. Lemon Juice
After you zest your lemon, you could squeeze the juice from the lemon, if you like to use freshly squeezed lemon juice. You could use a nifty lemon squeezer and squeeze all you can out of the lemon. Again, you could use what you need and pour the rest into an ice cube tray. I usually pour about one tablespoon in each section, which is what a recipe normally calls for.
You can then freeze the lemon juice in the ice cube tray for 3 or 4 hours. When the cubes are completely frozen, I transfer them to a Ziploc bag and label it.
Whenever a recipe calls for a tablespoon or two of lemon juice, just pop a few lemon juice cubes in. You could also add a cube to spice up a drink. The cubes should stay good in the freezer bags for up to a year. Or, you could just go ahead and make lemonade, I suppose! In which case, you might want my spectacular real lemon lemonade recipe!
3. Lemon Wedges
If you don’t want to go through all of that trouble to zest or juice your lemons, you might just want to make wedges out of them. As I mentioned earlier, I LOVE putting lemon wedges in my water or tea. Sometimes I go through phases where I want lemon water or tea every day. I crave it.
It’s interesting how the body craves what’s good for it. Lemons, for instance, are good for so many things.
Studies show that having 2 to 3 cups of warm lemon water first thing in the morning may help you improve your digestion throughout the day, increase your energy levels, flush your liver and stimulate proper stomach acid and bile production. Drinking lemon water can also give the immune system a little boost, since lemons are a good source of vitamin C. So, bring on the lemon wedges!
In the event you just want lemon wedges, (but don’t always want to take the time to slice up the wedges, only to find half have gone moldy) you can freeze these too!
I usually slice up 3 or 4 lemons at once. The wedges can be laid on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper and frozen in a single layer for 3 or 4 hours. When the wedges are completely frozen, I transfer them to mason jars with air tight lids.
You can then take out a slice or two whenever your heart desires it. Add a slice or two to hot or cold water or tea any time you like. No more wasting a whole lemon for just a few slices!
The wedges should stay good in the jars frozen for up to a year. However, mine rarely last a month!
4. The Rind
And last, but not least, what do you do with the rind? The easiest solution is to toss these down the garbage disposal and grind them up. They will leave your sink smelling fresh and clean! This is what I do most often.
Although, if you are into natural and green living, the rind can be used to polish stainless steel sinks and chrome faucets or sprinkled with salt and used to scrub your countertops.
However, you choose to use your lemons, know that you never have to waste a lemon ever again! There need be no more running to the store, for just one lemon. No more overspending on small plastic bottles of artificial lemon juice. Buy the good organic lemons when they are cheap and freeze, freeze, freeze!
What do you do with all of your lemons? Please share below.
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