When You Get Free Lemons
My husband brought home fresh lemons from work the other day. Someone in his office explained that their neighbor had too many lemons from their backyard trees. They had no use for the lemons and asked if they could be brought to the office to be given free to a good home. Well our home is more than good so they came home in his lunchbox.
First wash all the lemons with water and dry them. Find your zesting tool and get to work. I have received free backyard lemons before and it is a general rule that they are basically organic. The majority of people who have just a few lemon trees in their backyards do not have them professionally tended. This means they are not sprayed. Therefore I felt it was safe to zest the rinds for my pantry.
After I zested the rinds I squeezed each lemon using my handy dandy juicer. I ended up with almost 3 cups of juice, just enough for 2 batches of lemonade concentrate.
Homemade Lemonade Mix
I have been making my own lemonade for years. It is an easy recipe to remember, you need 1 1/2 cups of fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 1 1/2 cups of sugar (you can use less, but I would not go below a cup) and 1 cup of water. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan, stir, heat until sugar is dissolved. Once the mixture has cooled pour it into a pitcher, add the lemon juice and 5 cups of water. Pucker up because you now have lemonade. I assume you could probably make this with commercial lemon juice but I have never tried it.
It is delicious and especially great if you mix it with iced tea. Once you have had homemade lemonade you will never buy a commercial drink mix again. Well if you do you will immediately notice how it does not taste anywhere as nice as the homemade lemonade you made.
Now if you are lucky enough to squeeze more than 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice here is what to do with the "leftovers." By the way why would you not squeeze more when you are already squeezing lemons anyway. When not gifted fresh lemons, I will buy a bag of lemons at Costco. I can usually get at least enough juice for 2 batches of lemonade syrup, sometimes even 3 if it is a particularly juicy bag of lemons. If you already have all your equipment out to squeeze the lemons why not do the whole bag all at once. A case of lemons makes a ton (I mean at least 30 cups) of fresh squeezed lemon juice. Don't ask me how I came by this piece of knowledge, just trust me.
Freezing Lemon Juice
Lemon juice freezes very well all by itself. Just grab an ice cube tray and make lemon juice ice cubes. After the ice cubes are solid dump them out of the tray into a plastic bag or other container to keep them nice in the freezer. Unless you have the huge ice cube trays to make high ball ice cubes each cube will be approximately a tablespoon of lemon juice. Use a cube in any recipe that calls for lemon juice.
To freeze the lemonade concentrate you can go two ways. First you can just freeze 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice in a container. When you want to make lemonade reach for the frozen lemon juice. You can defrost it over night, but frankly that would involve planning. Usually when I want lemonade I want it right then, not in 24 hours! Since you are making a warm/hot sugar syrup anyway place the frozen lemon juice inside your pitcher and then pour the warm sugar syrup over the lemon juice, it will defrost very quickly. Add your five cups of water and your lemonade craving will be fixed.
Second, you can make the concentrate with the lemon juice and sugar syrup. (Basically you are making the base and not adding the 5 cups of water). Pour the combined mixture into a freezer safe container and place into freezer. When you want lemonade, defrost the concentrate, add your 5 cups of water and you have fresh squeezed lemonade.
I have done both methods and really do not notice a difference in taste or quality. You might, but I have never been accused of having a well developed palate so they both work fine for me. I notice no loss of taste with either the fresh or frozen methods of making the lemonade.