A few years ago I bought some lemon trees. Every year I get so many blooms and then end up with 1-2 lemons. Not this year. This year I had an abundance of lemons. I should have taken a picture of the trees before I picked them, but I did not. Lemons like most citrus are a winter fruit. They also take months to get to a point when they are ripe.

I live in zone 7 so I keep my trees in pots. When the weather is above freezing the pots are outside. They usually bloom in the summer. I've learned not to get too excited because the little baby lemons often don't survive. It's not until they get to about the size of a walnut that I start to get excited and attached to the lemons. In the fall when it gets close to freezing I bring the pots inside and put the trees near a window where they will get ample light.




These lemons were so juicy. So much juicier than you get at the store.




I ended up with enough juice from these lemons to make the lemon curd recipe I had 7 times! I was not detered, the lemon curd will not go to waste!




I don't know why lemon curd isn't more popular in the US. It's a staple in the UK, but it can actually be hard to find in the US. Citrus preserves in general are hard to find which is sad because it's so yummy. This GIANT bowl of lemon curd is made from a recipe by Cookies and Cups. It worked up really quick an I can't wait to start having it on toast, pancakes, dutch babies, or just eaten with a spoon. Having licked the spoon clean after I got it into the bowl to cool I can tell you it's delicious.

A few years ago I planted a Thai basil plant in my front yard, or maybe it was in a pot. The origin was 1 plant, but now every year it grows on it's own. Multiple Thai basil plants grow to small bushes.

We've been having this summer like fall so it's grown even bigger this year. This weekend was the last of the warm weather (it's November) so I went and snipped all the basil to make pesto.

So.

Much.

Basil.




I made pesto for about 3 hours. Pesto is pretty simple to make...basil, nuts (pine, walnut, pecan), olive oil, parmesan. The time consuming part is taking all the leaves off the basil stems. Once you have a pile of basil put it into the food processor. I wait until I have about 3-4 cups worth. Turn the processor on and then through the little tunnel add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Then add in your nuts and cheese. Scrape down the sides and add more oil if needed.

I freeze the pesto in my canning jars.

It's August and that means it's tomato season. There is a place by us that sells boxes of not perfect ones for $15 a box. Spent most of today skinning, coring, and processing roughly 65 pounds of tomatoes into marinara sauce. Ended up with 36 pint and 7 quart jars. If we are going to make it to next spring I'm going to have to pick up a few more, but I'm almost out of jars. Have a lot of canned stuff right night in jars, maybe need to binge on jam.

>Went to Baugher's orchard yesterday with the grandkids. Was expecting peaches, but ended up picking nectarines and plums. Still got some peaches from their market. Spent last night and this morning making jams and other things. Nectarine lime, peach bourbon, spiced plum, nutmeg peach butter, plums in honey syrup, nectarine butter, and a couple more I'm forgetting. Have a few plums left that are super ripe and so amazing and some peaches I'm going to turn into a pie later this week. Finishing up the last two and then I need to do some weeding in the garden. Hopefully also have some time to go play with clay.