Home-grown Lemons

The day before the big freeze last week I picked these lemons from my mom’s lemon tree.  They are Meyer Lemons.  They are excellent.

Lemons are used for so many things.  Lemons smell so fresh and clean that lemon oil is a popular ingredient of household cleaners.  Water with slices of lemon help cleanse your liver.  Lemons are used to flavor all different kinds of food.  Lemon zest in sugar cookies is delicious.  Fresh lemon juice in cheesecake is divine.  Lemonade is easy to make and refreshing on a hot day.  Lemon juice also helps make meat tender when it is part of a marinade.

Lemons dress up plain water or iced tea.  They add a little pizazz to food.  Lemons are a cheap way add flavor to your dinner and/or dessert.

Lemon trees are also easy to grow in Southeast Texas.  The trees have thorns, but nothing like rose bushes.  It is easy to avoid getting pricked.  They are hearty citrus trees.  They can withstand the cold well here.  Even with a hard freeze, the tree fairs well.  Having said that, the temperatures generally only dip far below freezing for a short amount of time.

One of my dad’s favorite desserts is lemon meringue pie.  It is a delicious way to use both fresh lemon juice and the lemon rind.  The following is our recipe.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Filling:
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 Tbsp cold water
6 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon rind
3 egg yolks
2 Tbsp milk
1 pie crust, baked*

Meringue:
3 egg whites
6 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Combine sugar, water, and butter in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves.  Blend the cornstarch with the 3 Tbsp of cold water and then add to the saucepan.  Cook the mixture slowly until it clears.  It takes about 8 minutes.  Add the lemon juice and rind.  Cook for 2 minutes.  Beat the yolks with the milk and then slowly add to the mixture.  Allow it to come to a boil.  Cool and pour into a baked pie crust.
In a mixing bowl, beat the three ingredients for meringue until it has stiff peaks.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Cool and serve cold.

*This recipe is gluten-free without the crust.  To keep it gluten-free, use my recipe for a delicious gluten-free pie crust.  It can be found on page 57 of my cookbook, Texas Homesteader Wheat-Free Cookbook.

Tags: gluten-free recipe, lemon meringue pie recipe, meyer lemons, uses of lemons

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 6:12 am and is filed under Homesteading. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.