When Life Throws You Lemons.............!

You have all heard the psychologically uplifting phrase about lemons and making lemonade when they are thrown at you? I often wonder what you are supposed to do when things like eggs are thrown at you, make a soufflé perhaps? Or what about watermelons? If they are thrown at you, don't worry about making anything, just make sure that you are not underneath one when it comes down!!

Anyway, back to lemons! Or limes and oranges in actual fact.

The 'Before' shot!

A week ago my neighbour Emma gave me some limes. They have a tree or two on their farm and the trees are bearing a goodly amount of fruit at the moment. So, I squeezed them and froze the juice. The smell of fresh lime juice is mouthwateringly good and fresh limes are hard to find in our part of the world. Then Emma gave me some more limes along with some oranges and I decided that it was time to do something more exciting! So, I had a go at making marmalade. I have had several 'iffy' results with marmalade, some good and some disasters, so I googled microwave marmalade recipes and found one that only used 500 gm of fruit, not too much to chuck away if it all went wrong! It actually worked quite well, so I made a couple of batches and added whiskey to the second batch.

The 'After' shot!

But then I became over-confident and decided to make lemon and lime marmalade as Emma had handed me several lemons in the mean time!

But the lime and lemon was not as good. The lemon skins were thick and didn't soften with the short microwave time as well as the oranges had. The taste was good but it’s a bit disconcerting to end up with a chunk of hard, bitter skin, so I shan't be trying that again.

But, I am not one to be beaten, especially as Emma handed me another batch of lemons and limes! So, I re-googled marmalade and found an ‘old fashioned’ recipe that uses good old stove-top technology that looked easy and had it step by step in pictures………for us visual learners!! However, it was a tad more complicated than the good old chop and boil but it looked easy and my enthusiasm knew no bounds!

So, on Thursday, when I finished my stint at Hospice, I headed off to Pick ‘n Pay and added sugar to my usual weekly trolley. On Friday morning I re-read the recipe and compared it to the one that Coert next door had given me, the one my sister had emailed me and the ones that had been scribbled down by friends on the back of old till slips, and eventually settled on a kind of mix of four.

So, I thinly peeled the lemons using a serrated knife(the recipe said to use a veg peeler, ja right!) and then discarded the pith and carefully separated the segments from that skin stuff. This all sounds very quick and easy when you read it, but it took forever. I had to cut the peel into thin strips which gave my arm muscles a good work out, and carefully avoided slicing my fingers at the same time. The peel and the flesh went into a saucepan with water and I simmered it for about an hour. Then in with the sugar. A stir to make sure it was all dissolved and back on the simmer for about half to three quarters of an hour. And into bottles.

Beautifully set and tasty!

And this is the result, a lemon and lime marmalade that tastes really good, a little tart but not bitter. And NO chewy peel either! Then Emma and Coert decided to make marmalade too and we had a sort of competition going with bottles being passed over the wall for comparison! Great fun and enjoyed by all.

But, the next time life throws lemons, or limes at me, I am going to learn to juggle!