Wrong! Do you see that pile of peeled lemons in the above picture? You are not done for today! After spending hours peeling and scraping you're going to be tired, especially if you do 150 lemons like we did. Your back is going to be hurting, your hands might be sore, but you still have work to do. Some people might just throw this pile away, but the Portuguese blood in me won't let me waste a thing. You should NOT wait until the next day to juice these, their flavor will change for the worse if you wait. It's time to bring out the juicer. 
I stayed up until about 10pm that night juicing these darn things after my friends left. This juice is valuable. This juice will bring me lemonade in the summer, marinate chicken breasts, and be added to countless recipes through out the next year.
With this amount of lemons, I fill up my ice cube trays really fast, and shove them in the freezer. The next day I can pop them out of their trays and move to a ziploc bag and put back into the freezer for long term storage. After I used up my trays I was still left with about 2 gallons of lemon juice (anyone need highlights?!). At this point I start measuring into ziploc bags, 2 cups at a time. I label the bags with what it is and the date.
As I fill up the bags, I try to get rid of as much air as possible, and lay them all on a baking sheet. I use four bags per baking sheet, and stack the baking sheets on top of each other in the freezer. Once they freeze like this, take the baking sheets out, and stack the frozen bags in the freezer nicely. Viola! You'll now have a nice supply of lemon juice to use through out the year. 
But wait! You still have a bunch of lemon carcasses! What are you going to do with those?!
Throw them away! It's late, you're tired, you've done enough for today! Seriously, you should not put these in the compost bin, and you definitely should not put these in your worm bins (unless you WANT to melt the little dudes). The best place for these is now in your trash can, you've used and abused them enough. 
Holy cow, that's a lot of lemons! I'm glad you saved your crop before the freeze. If I harvest more than two strawberries next year, we can have strawberry lemonade!
ReplyDeleteI always compost my cirtus peels and I'm curious as to why you caution not to. Was it purely because of the volume of peels you have? I've composted mine for years and never seen any harm.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's perfectly fine to compost them but you could also fill a mason jar with them, fill up with white vinegar to cover and let sit in a cool dark place for two weeks. Strain then and bottle up in a spray bottle. Fantastic spray cleaner!!! This is all I use, although I may change citrus peels like orange, or lime if I have those on hand. I always save my peels and let them dry out till I have enough to do something with. After I'm thorugh THEN I compost them.
DeleteKLW- I don't compost my citrus because of their high acid content. If I was only using that compost for acid loving plants it would be one thing, but since I only have one pile to manage for all of my garden I avoid them. It would be one thing if I was only dropping in one here and there, but since I typically have LOTS of peels within such a short period of time, I toss them in the garbage.
ReplyDeleteWow, Carri, that is a lot of lemons! I'm just like you and hate wasting an ounce of a fresh organic fruit or veg. I, sadly, have to BUY lemons here (boo hoo) and so I'm thankful for this lovely post that lets me imagine I have a lemon tree too.
ReplyDeleteHi Carri.
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog, via Germi.
Really enjoyed reading all about your citrus, you, your life, and a whole lot more...
I have suscribed and added you to my blog-roll. I will be going back through your archives over the holidays!
Always great to come across a great new (to me) blog.
Your Meyer lemon post was really informative, I am just about to harvest mine. I also had the best year to date for mexican limes and satsumas.
ESP.
Now that is one HUGE pile of lemons :) Hope the juice lasts!
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! I wish we were neighbors cause I'd drink the hell out of some limoncello with you!
ReplyDelete