Every year we are blessed with a plethora of citrus fruits. They are wonderful and refreshing but what are you going to do with loads and loads of them? They all seem to come into your life…all at the same time!!!
When we moved from our old house I collected bags and bags of lemons and limes from the trees. I needed to figure out what to with all of them. I gifted friends and family; co-workers also received some of the bounty from Mother Nature, but there are only so many you can use at one time.
Over the years I have given away bags and bags of lemons and limes! We are blessed with a mild climate here in Northern California and citrus thrives in our area. I haven’t had to buy a lemon or lime at the grocery store in years!
Other than giving them all away, today I want to share loads of creative ideas for how you can use them. One of the easiest ideas, when you have an overabundance of citrus fruit, is to juice them and freeze the juice for later use.
Juice fruits and strain out the pulp using a mesh strainer. You don’t necessarily need to strain the juice and can skip this step if you choose.
With lemon or lime juice, I like to pour the juice into ice cube trays. Each cube is roughly the equivalent of 1 tablespoon.
Once juice is frozen, pop the cubes out of the ice cube trays, place them in a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer to use in your recipes later on. When a recipe calls for lemon or lime juice you have it ready to use in your freezer.
Be sure to save those seeds! You can easily start a tree from seed on a window sill and with patience you will have a tree producing an abundance of fresh fruit for years to come.
When you are juicing your citrus fruits, set aside the seeds on a paper towel and allow them to dry. The seeds can be planted directly in the ground or in small pots and transplanted later on once they have a good set of roots.
Use citrus as decorative accents around your home. They add a lovely pop of color and are at arms reach when you need them for a recipe. Functional, edible decor…how very practical!
As a last resort, if you just can’t keep up, quarter them and grind them up in the garbage disposal to get rid of any funky smells.
What can you do with all those lemons? Here are just a few ideas:
- Make Lemonade.
- Make Lemon Chicken (get the recipe here).
- Use the zest in your recipes.
- Make Chicken Piccata.
- Make Margaritas, Ole!
- Use slices in sparkling water.
- Grind them up in the garbage disposal to keep it smelling fresh.
- Add a squeeze of juice to sauces, soups and stews.
- Make lemon bars.
- Bake a lemon pie.
- Drop a wedge in a cold beer.
- Freeze juice for later use.
- Cut a lemon in half and rub on your cutting board to get rid of unpleasant smells. (Check out how to care for your cutting boards here)
- Save the seeds and grow a tree.
- Use them as decorative accents in your home.
- Give them as gifts to friends, family and co-workers.
- Dry them to make beautiful Christmas ornaments. (Find out how to do it here)
Now you have a few ideas about what to do when life gives you an abundance of lemons, or limes, or just about any type of citrus fruits. ☺️
What’s your favorite way to use citrus?
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