The Meyer lemon tree I bought on impulse this spring spent its summer on the deck. It flowered profusely in the spring and set a lot of fruit. All but five dropped and the biggest of those is now ripe and the rest are starting to ripen. I will have to come up with a good recipe to use my first lemon. Any suggestions? I found the LA Times has an article on “100 things to do with a Meyer Lemon” which is giving me some ideas.
The garden is mostly done except for kale, chard, parsley and some remaining beets which can take the frost we had last week. My wife and son visited the garden the weekend before the frost and harvested what they could. I photographed it but didn’t post it last week. One remarkable find they made was three more of the Summer Dance cucumbers. I have never had cucumbers up to frost before.
I haven’t done a lot of work in the garden the last couple of weeks because I have been recovering from surgery I had the end of September. One advantage of being an “invalid” was I didn’t cook or clean. My daughter was bothered by the stack of zucchini and patty pan squash piling up on the counter, so she decided to work her way through the Victory Garden Cookbook section on summer squash. One of the best was a squash pie made by layering slices of zucchini, tomatoes and cheese in a pastry crust and baking it.
As soon as I can bend comfortably in the middle, I have to clean up the beds and get ready to plant my garlic and shallots. Unfortunately I didn’t plant my spinach and sprouting broccoli seeds, but I may try a few just to see if they germinate and take. You never know what the weather will be. I also hope to pot up a rosemary plant for the winter. Last winter was so mild my rosemary survived into January or February when the really cold weather finally killed it.
I love our Meyer lemon tree! It didn't do much the first couple of years we had it, but now it produces all the time. My favorite recipes for using my lemons are lemon soup, lemon jelly and lemon bars. The order of favorite depends on the day. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAll of those sound good. We had Meyer lemon cupcakes a couple of months ago.
DeleteI bought a Meyer lemon tree last year as well! And a load of flowers bloomed and everything but one survived. I am waiting patiently for it to turn yellow - hopefully soon. I have some other citrus trees, and 2 lime trees each have one fruit on it. I don't quite know when to pick them yet...
ReplyDeleteI had a Persian lime years ago. I would get a couple of limes every year. I picked the limes when they looked a good size and had softened a bit, indicating they are juicy. If they turn yellow it's too late.
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ReplyDeleteThat is one good looking meyer lemon.
ReplyDeleteHope you continue to mend speedily from your surgery and are back to normal again real soon.
Very nice lemon! Hope you find a good use for it! Feel better!
ReplyDeleteI hope you are recovering well and speedily from your surgery. Those kinds of things can really knock the stuffing out of you for a while.
ReplyDeleteVery cool about the Meyer lemon producing! I have been toying with the idea of buying myself one for a long time, but am not sure I have enough light exposure indoors to properly overwinter it.
Well, we used to have bright, sunny winter days but lately we have been having a lot of cloudy, rainy weather like the Northwest. If I can just have it survive, hopefully it will recover once it can go outside in the spring.
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