Author Harvesting Lemons
When life hands you 100 pounds of lemons (or you pick them yourself) DO NOT MAKE LEMONADE!
I was very happy to get a call from my friend James Sly of Sly's in Carpinteria. Santa Barbara has a number of small lemon groves on private estates where the fruit goes begging to be picked and we were invited to harvest some fruit. We picked a couple of hundred pounds in less than 30 minutes and hardly made a dent on what the trees produced. There were two varieties growing, the Meyers and the Eureka.
Here are some rather dry descriptions of these two lemon varieties by Morton, J. 1987.
'Meyer'–a hybrid, possibly lemon X mandarin orange; introduced into the United States as S.P.I. #23028, by the agricultural explorer, Frank N. Meyer, who found it growing as an ornamental pot-plant near Peking, China, in 1908; obovate, elliptical or oblong, round at the base, occasionally faintly necked and furrowed or lobed; apex rounded or with short nipple; of medium size, 2 1/4 to 3 in (5.7-7.5 cm) wide and 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 in (6.25-9 cm) high; peel light-orange with numerous small oil glands, 1/8 to 1/4 in (3-6 mm) thick; pulp pale orange-yellow, usually in 10 segments with tender walls, melting, juicy, moderately acid with medium lemon flavor; seeds small, 8 to 12. Tends to be everbearing but fruits mostly from December to April. Tree small, with few thorns, prolific, cold-resistant; produces few water sprouts, and is only moderately subject to greasy spot and oil spotting. It is easily and commonly grown from cuttings. Does well on sweet orange and rough lemon rootstocks; is not grafted onto sour orange because it is a carrier of a virulent strain of tristeza. Grown for home use in California; in Florida, both for home use and to some extent commercially for concentrate though the product must be enhanced by the addition of peel oil from true lemons, since that from 'Meyer' peel is deficient in flavoring properties. Has been fairly extensively planted in Texas and in Queensland, Australia, and New Zealand.
'Eureka'–originated from seed taken from an Italian lemon (probably the 'Lunario') and planted in Los Angeles in 1858; selected in 1877 and budwood propagated by Thomas Garey who named it 'Garey's Eureka'. The fruit is elliptic to oblong or rarely obovate, with moderately protruding nipple at apex, a low collar at the base; peel yellow, longitudinally ridged, slightly rough because of sunken oil glands, medium-thick, tightly clinging; pulp greenish-yellow, in about 10 segments, fine-grained, tender, juicy, very acid. Fruits often borne in large terminal clusters unprotected by the foliage. Bears all year but mostly late winter, spring and early summer when the demand for lemons is high. Tree of medium size, almost thornless, early-bearing, prolific; not especially vigorous, cold-sensitive, not insect-resistant; relatively short-lived. Not suitable for Florida. Grown commercially in Israel. One of the 2 leading cultivars of California, though now being superseded by clonal selections with more vigor, e.g., 'Allen', 'Cascade', 'Cook', and 'Ross'. 'Lambert Eureka' is a chance seedling found in 1940 on the property of Horace Lambert in New South Wales. It is vigorous and productive. Morton, J. 1987. Lemon
If you read this far and suffered the dry education on lemons, come back later for the recipes. You do not have to make lemonade from lemons. In fact, there are a number of terrific foods you can make with lemons. Here are a few favorites,
Lemon Curd, Candied Lemon Zest, Lemon Roasted Chicken, Lemon Meringue Pie, Limoncello, Salt Preserved Lemons, Lemon Tart, Lemon Baked Seabass, Lemon Pound Cake, Bistecca Fiorentino, Lemon Bar, Chicken Picatta.
I am going to make Limoncello, Candied Zest and Salt Preserved Lemons from this harvest and will chronicle those efforts in a later blog.
Tastefully yours®
Chef Michael Hutchings
