Juicy Lemons

What a fabulous weekend I've had.  The weather was just perfect.  Warm and inviting.  What better thing to do than get outside in the garden.  I found some yummy things to do inside on my breaks too.  Lemon curd is a favourite with our girls.  Of course the homemade variety wins every time for flavour. 

My two bags of lemons have been reduced to three lemons.  On Saturday I made a batch of lemon curd and then lemon cordial.  It was so much fun I repeated it all on Sunday.  What easy recipes they both are. 

The girls all had turns rolling them around the bench to make them more juicy and then squeezing them. 

 

I'll give you the recipes if you like as they are so simple.  For the lemon cordial you need:

Juice and zest of 3 lemons

1 1/2 cups of sugar

3 cups boiling water

Place all in a large bowl and stir until sugar has dissolved.  Strain when cool and bottle.  

To drink, use one part cordial to two parts water.   

Lemon Curd:

100g butter

2 teaspoons lemon zest

100ml lemon juice

175g castor sugar

3 eggs - beaten lightly

Combine all but the eggs in a pan.  Heat while stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Remove from heat and add the beaten eggs stirring constantly.  Return to low heat until thickened slightly.  This stage doesn't take long at all.  Pour in two jars and refrigerate. 

And this is where my lemon tree is going to go, up there.  Of course hubby is going to be busy trying to pull those bushes out first.  I think there will be room for a manderin tree too.  The girls can't eat enough of those.

I have added some stepping stones to this garden.  It was getting a bit tricky to get to the weeds at the back.  Now it's just perfect and ready for my spring planting. 

I found the planter boxes got too hot and dry last summer so this time around I will plant flowers and herbs in them.  Geraniums, Nasturiums, Salvias are sounding colourful.  I'll be growing loads of herbs and flowers around the garden, when I have my fruit trees in, to attract the bees.   

I've found room for several trees; an apple, pear, plum and of course the

lemon and mandarin. I'll have to get double or triple grafted apple and pear trees for pollination.  I really don't have room for two apple trees and two pear trees.  Does anyone have any of these and can tell me if they do well?  Otherwise I'll probably just get two different apple trees if it means more fruit.

It's all been rather exciting in the garden.  I've not done a bit of sewing at all in weeks.  But I must do some soon as I've promised the school that I will teach sewing for senior electives.  It sounds rather exciting really.  I have to get my projects organised for them soon.  Nice and simple ones as they probably won't know how to sew at all.

Now I'd better be off.  No.4 and I are going to Spotlight to see what's on special.  I quite fancy some sushi for lunch too!  Hope you had a lovely weekend too.