Since we had a bountiful crop of Ponderosa lemons this fall I started a
small (3-pint)batch of lemon marmalade this morning. Recipe called for a
pound and a half of lemons, I weighed one lemon and it was spot on at
1.5 lbs so it is becoming marmalade. Sliced both ends off, cut it
lengthwise down the middle and then each of those halves lengthwise.
Took out all the seeds and put them in a cheesecloth bag. Then sliced
the lemon quarters into very thin slices, cutting off some of the pith
and stringy stuff. Seeds in the bag and slices went into a non-reactive
pot (stainless steel pot I use for making jellies and jams), added four
cups of tap water, put on the lid. That will sit for 24 hours or a
little more, depending on what I'm doing tomorrow. Then the fun starts,
doing all the stuff that leads to marmalade.

If this stuff works out as I hope it will, it may become necessary to
make a larger, annual batch. Ain't life grand in the preserving patch.

George Shirley wrote:
> Since we had a bountiful crop of Ponderosa lemons this fall I started
> a small (3-pint)batch of lemon marmalade this morning. Recipe called
> for a pound and a half of lemons, I weighed one lemon and it was spot
> on at 1.5 lbs so it is becoming marmalade.

Lemonzilla!

Brian Mailman wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>> Since we had a bountiful crop of Ponderosa lemons this fall I started
>> a small (3-pint)batch of lemon marmalade this morning. Recipe called
>> for a pound and a half of lemons, I weighed one lemon and it was spot
>> on at 1.5 lbs so it is becoming marmalade.
>
> Lemonzilla!
No, just a baby. In 2002, a really good year for fruit here, I picked
one lemon that weighed in at 3.3 lbs and the majority of them ran about
2 lbs. Had to prop the tree limbs up to keep them from breaking.

The Ponderosa lemon has a very thick skin, many seeds (I counted fifty
seeds in the one I cut up this morning), and the skin is often bumpy,
for lack of a better term. It is thought to be a natural cross between a
lemon and a grapefruit, having the grapefruits size and the lemons tartness.

We harvest upwards of 20 quart bags of lemon cubes every year from this
tree and we use a lot of lemon juice in everything from cooking recipes
to lemonade, to cubes in iced tea or hot tea or even as a whitening
liquid at certain times.

Our tree is about eighteen years old now and has been frozen back to the
ground twice. It will grow true to the parent from a seed or from a
sprout from a root. I have given away hundreds of seeds and probably 100
young plants. Even sold 50 small trees at the local farmers market once,
a buck a tree. They were snapped up quickly too.

George Shirley wrote:
> Brian Mailman wrote:

>> Lemonzilla!

> The Ponderosa lemon has a very thick skin, many seeds (I counted
> fifty seeds in the one I cut up this morning), and the skin is often
> bumpy, for lack of a better term.

Huh, sounds like a citron, although those don't have much juice and are
used mostly for their skin... lemme do something intelligent for a
change and take a look.... ah, yeah... so it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponderosa_lemon although they say it's a
lemon-citron cross, not grapefruit. Looks just like a citron, only
yellow. Reminds me of my dog as a kid, she was was a chihuahua/pug who
got out and met up with a King Charles spaniel. Three of the pups
looked like huge chihuahuas, and the one we kept looked like a miniature
spaniel..

B/