My Lemon Tree

Lemon Tree

Lemon flowers and baby lemons

Lemon peel strips

There is something truly life affirming when you take care of a plant and it grows a flower or even fruit. My daughter (LaLa Lunchbox) and son-in-law (Jesse Hertzberg) gave me a lemon tree plant for Mothers Day. There were two lemons on it, hard and green. It took until now for the fruit to ripen. I did get some flowers and even a couple of baby lemons but they didn’t grow. Still — I had the original lemons and last week they were ready for using.

What to do with two lemons? I didn’t want to mix them with store bought lemons! So I made a half recipe of lemon ice cream using the juice and a bit of the zest. Then I scraped the skins and cut them into slim slices — will use them for chocolate dipped candied lemons!

No recipes for now because I haven’t tasted the ice cream and haven’t candied the lemon peels. But, will do if they’re good.

During stressful times, there’s a reminder that the world keeps moving, life goes on, some lovely, life-affirming things can make you happy. Like ripe homegrown lemons and ice cream and candy.

Candied Lemon Peel

You know those two lemons that ripened on my house plant lemon tree? The ones I posted about a while back? I used the juice to make ice cream, which was incredibly delicious (more about that another time). I candied the peel. Some we ate plain. Some I dipped in chocolate and we ate those too! Oh my were these awesomely good! Really! I used @toriavey’s recipe because I hadn’t made these before and didn’t have a recipe of my own. Thanks Tori! #lemonpeel #candiedlemonpeel #wastenot #wastenotwantnot #homemadecandy

Here is the recipe: https://toriavey.com/how-to-make-candied-lemon-peels/

Btw these make a terrific gift — remember this recipe for Valentine’s Day or Purim!