Well, back again to give you hopefully more tips, tricks and maybe a few recipes to help guide you on this sometimes-confusing path. My plan had been to go week by week of what I got and then I realized that we might not go the same day to the food bank or one of the mobile sites so there was a chance we wouldn’t be getting the same items. So, my tips might not be a bit helpful that week. So, my goal has changed just slightly, and I will cover items not days or weeks.

So if my memory serves me right, I left off with lemons. Last week I ended up with 2 large bags of lemons. I don’t even have a guess at weight. I first bagged up a few to share with neighbors but there were what seemed like a ton left. There are several options to save lemons some I won’t begin to try to explain because I haven’t begun to attempt myself.

There are parts of the lemon that are usable juice, zest, seeds and the remains after that can be combined with vinegar for cleaning.

In this case I pulled out the simple juicer electric version. I think I processed those lemons in a couple hours. The juice was put into reused containers, I prefer to put things up in 4–26-ounce containers I ordered from Amazon but I was running low. It would be best to put in ice trays then once frozen pop into a zip lock type bag and leave in the freezer. It is a more manageable amount that way, but I plan on making pies and cakes with it so larger portions are fine.

The next use probably should have been talked about before the juicing. Zest which comes from the outer skin of the lemon can be saved using a grater or a zester which allows you to get thin strips of rind to use for baking and in beverages, those I would freeze in a bit of water to keep it from changing colors in the freezer.

This can all be applied to oranges and limes as well.

See you next time, Pam