Beating the lemon glut

I've spent part of the morning squeezing lemon juice. The lemons are from our backyard Eureka tree and have been sitting on the back verandah for a few days waiting for something to happen. Today it did.

I feel really connected to this land we live on when I make things from backyard produce. I feel that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I remember back to my childhood when fruit cordials and ginger beer were the only sweet drink available. Most people made their own, but for those who didn't, the ginger beer man delivered his wares with horse and cart in stone bottles. Lemon and orange cordial could be bought in glass bottles at the store.

Nowadays, cordial is making a comeback. There are a lot of speciality cordials at farmers' markets now - made with everything from wild raspberries and pink grapefruit to elderberries.

This morning I made 40 pure juice ice blocks, 1.5 litres of pure juice to be frozen, and two bottles of cordial. I'll store them in the fridge and we'll drink it over the next month or so.

I've only used about a third of the lemons we picked. I think I need to find more plastic bottles and keep juicing.