Last Mother’s Day Chance bought me a Meyer Lemon Tree. It was big and healthy and I picked a sunny spot on the edge of my yard where I figured she would flourish.
This picture (above) was a few months back when the fruit was starting to ripen. I often had to remind Sloane not to pick the lemons yet. Everything I’ve read about Meyer lemons describe them as “small” lemons, well I’m not sure what got into ours, but they are not small.
See the tag, I trust they truly are Meyer lemons and that my super green thumb just made them grow like crazy. 
It rained here for what felt like 40 days and 40 nights and then Sunday morning I woke up to the bluest sky I’d ever seen. I decided it was a good day to harvest the lemons off the tree, they were bordering on too ripe. Little bees were all over the blooms, collecting pollen like crazy. The fruit is mostly on the bottom half of the tree, or perhaps the weight of the lemons just made it appear that way. The tallest branches on the tree are probably 8 or 9 feet tall.
I should have backed up a little to show the whole tree, but I was fixated on those sunny yellow lemons. The spotlight and Christmas tree lights protected the tree during some very pretty low temperature dips back in January. Meyer lemons are very cold hearty, but I hated to risk it. I didn’t pick all the lemons, but this was a good start…
A couple of weeks ago I thought I would preserve the lemons in salt like this. But I don’t know what I’d do with them other than admire their prettiness. So I decided to juice them.
I cut and cut and juiced and juiced. I went out and bought an electronic juicer, but ended up just using my old fashioned one left over from a photo shoot a few years back.
And just to show the scale, some of these lemons are almost as tall as a soda can.
At the end of the juice fest this is what remained.
And I was left with 89 fluid ounces of Meyer lemon juice. What pray tell would one do with 89 ounces of Meyer lemon juice? I am going to freeze it in ice cube trays and save them for smoothies and for iced tea this summer. I also tend to love a lemon glaze on blueberry muffins and scones and can easily thaw a cube or two for this purpose too.
Point of my story, if you’ve been wondering if a Meyer lemon tree would be a good addition to your family, I highly recommend them. They also thrive in containers so if you live somewhere cold you could always bring them indoors for the winter. I was tempted to order these cute trays for my juice, aren’t they fun? This weekend I plan to transfer the lemon cubes to freezer zip-loc bags, don’t want to run the risk of any freezer burn.
