Don't Pick a Lemon

Terrible title, I know. It was the theme of a college dance while El Guapo and I were engaged, which is even worse than a blog title.

There's a place where you can pick your own citrus fruit for ten cents a piece less than two miles from us. We pass it all the time on our way to Sprouts to buy our produce. A couple weeks ago while my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were here, they took my kids there (El Guapo and I were on a date). They had a blast and came home with great pictures, fun stories, and tons of fruit. So we went the next Saturday (it's only open on Saturday) to get more. You're probably thinking, Who needs that much citrus? I agree, but my mother-in-law sent me the juicer attachment to my hand-me-down Bosch mixer. I needed an excuse to use it again and who doesn't love homemade lemonade or fresh squeezed orange juice?

On the way home we devised this brilliant plan for keeping the kids busy so that we could get to work. The kids are "helping" wash the fruit. Water + kids = mess. But it also means happy busy kids that stay outside until they are soaking wet and Mom and Dad have made plenty of progress without them under foot. We more than filled the huge bucket.

Here I am with my new juicer.

That's eighty lemons.

We measured out one cup of lemon juice into little Ziploc bags to freeze. Putting the bags into cups makes the pouring easier. Following my mother-in-law's recipe, it's 1 cup lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, and 2 quarts water. You may want to adjust it to your tastes.

Twenty six bags of lemon juice.

We also juiced fifteen grapefruit and thirty or so oranges, but that was before we started taking pictures.