Lemon Tree
Slideshow by H.C.
Lemon Tree 2007-May 2010
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Lemon Tree
The lemon tree is on the far left of this photo (above), taken in March of 2007.
Back then it was a tall stick with some leaves on it. We kept it on the porch for a bit, and then ended up moving it to the side of the house.
Twenty whole months later in late November of 2008, I reported in my journal that we did not see any signs out of this tree that it would be producing fruit. :( It was probably still too young at the time.
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon Tree
Just over seven more months later, Kelly discovered lemons budding on the tree. I was soooooooo happy and excited that day! I took a bunch of photos of the little baby lemons sprouting. I was totally clapping wildly for them! Yay!
In July of 2009 I had counted 5 little baby lemons. They were all tiny and green and cute!
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon Tree
The texture of the baby lemons wasn't smooth like I was used to seeing at the supermarket and I wondered if they were just really rough looking because they were babies.
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemons
This is where I am missing a photo, so I had to pull it off of the internet. The next photo is not mine, but after a few months, I checked the lemon tree and there were only two lemons left. I think either the neighborhood cats, or perhaps the scheduled landscaping and leaf blowing around the tree and hedges took all but two of the baby lemons off of their branches.
As they continued to mature, they looked strange to me. I wondered if they were diseased or sick. They developed raised vein-like humps that were deep green. I had never seen this before. I also didn't know if it was part of a phase of growth for a lemon either, so I left the tree alone to see how the lemons would continue to develop.
They looked very similar to this for several months. It had me worried. It was so bizarre!
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon Tree
Finally the lemons grew out of the green, veiny phase and turned completely yellow. However, the raised sections that were once green still remained, and I considered them to still be unripe. The lemons were fondled quite often the last couple of months. The photo above was taken in February of this year when it was raining outside.
I didn't think they would be any good after the strange green phase, so I left them on the branch to do whatever they were going to do. Wither? Rot? Ripen off? No idea...
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon Tree
The other lemon remains hanging from the branch, and I will probably remove it tomorrow. I need to read up on the tree to see if now is a good time to do some maintenance. I have only pruned the tree once since we have had it. The soil gets citrus sticks placed into it every few months as needed.
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon Tree
In May 2010, even though the tree is photographed in front of a hedge here, it is more full with leaves than it was three months ago, and still hosted my two lemons. Actually, SK told me one of them had dropped into the dirt when he went out to water the tree, and I took these photos knowing I was going to bring the detached lemon into the house.
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon
So, this is the first fruit of my tree. I'm all sentimental about it. I waited three years for this moment to get here from when we brought the tree home from the store.
Well anyway, almost ceremoniously, I cut the lemon in half. I was surprised and confused and dumbfounded and fascinated all at the same time at what I saw. What a strange looking fruit I had on my hands.
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon
The inside of my lemon was colored like a grapefruit. The vesicles appeared to be really plump and full of juice. It wasn't quite pink, not quite orange, and certainly NOT the yellow I was expecting. I tasted it and it was extra sour! I love sour things but this was over the top sour! Wowzers! (It was pointed out to me that the lemon was probably quite overripe.)
When the lemon was growing, the skin was so tough-looking I imagined it was going to be pretty thick, but as it turns out from the photo, it is very thin compared to other sliced lemon photos I have seen.
Its unusual coloration had me wondering once again if my lemon tree or the lemon was diseased or sick. :( I hadn't ever seen anything like this and so I went upstairs to go take a look at what I could find on the internet. I looked up blood lemon, blood orange...
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
It turns out that the lemon tree has produced pink lemons. And what I have is called a [Dwarf] Variegated Eureka Pink Lemon. Contrary to the name, the juice is not pink to make "real" pink lemonade, but they can be used to make pink lemonade like any other lemon can. I found this on the internet: "The Variegated Pink Lemon is a mutant (freak of nature) found on an ordinary Eureka lemon tree in Burbank, California circa 1930. " The photo below is also from the internet and looks better than what I could show you compared mine:
Photo by YayHappens
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Lemon Tree Branch
After I had sliced my lemon in half and had a taste of it the previous day, I put it in a ziploc bag, tossed it in the fridge and pondered what I was going to do with it.
I originally decided that I would make the lemon into a useful memento that I could keep around by slicing it, drying it, and placing it in a bowl as a decorative component of potpourri or something.
I looked up how to dry lemon slices for potpourri-making and since I do not have a food dehydrator, I prepared for my lemons to dry in my oven.
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
I took my pink lemon out of the refrigerator and out of its ziploc bag. They were then cut it into thin slices and I arranged them on my cutting board to look pretty for the camera. I am so in love with how the little sections are shaped like candy corns and as a whole, the petals of a daisy flower. I think it's very appealing!
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
I do not have either parchment paper or wax paper, so I put foil over a baking sheet, dull-side up. I carefully placed the lemon slices onto the baking sheet and added the lemon tree leaves.
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
Off topic, I was reading articles last night on the subject of food photography. I'm glad I spent a little bit of time learning about it. I can already see an improvement out of today's photos. *lol*
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
The instructions that I went by said to put them in the oven at 175�F / 79�C and bake them for 4-6 hours, checking them often. Later I read that they can be dried using the temperature 275�F / 135�C for 2 hours if an oven doesn't go lower than 200�F.
The kitchen and the house smelled amazing after the first hour. The scent of sweet lemon filled the air. I checked on their progress every thirty minutes. A dehydrator is supposed to circulate air to help it dry the goods uniformly. Since I don't have one, when I checked my lemons, I would leave the oven door open for a moment and fan the warm air a little bit. Every two hours I flipped them over.
After 5 hours in the oven I removed the baking sheet. They still had some drying to do. I decided I would let the early evening sun do the rest of the work on my porch. I didn't want the slices to bake to the point that they got dark and truly "baked", so I think putting them out in the natural elements for the rest of the process wasn't such a bad idea.
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
I was reading that there are a lot of things that can be done with lemon slices. They can be candied for instance, and I guess some people even keep dried slices on hand to steep in their tea for light lemon flavor when a fresh lemon is too strong. They sell dried slices for just that purpose, and I didn't even know it! I kept running across different uses people had for them. I was most interested to learn how these were used for crafting. Again, my purpose was to use them as a component of potpourri mix.
In one article I read, it said that dried lemons that turn out properly have a stained glass effect when held up to the light. I took some photos of my newly dried slices to get a glimpse of what that meant.
In the natural light, very pretty, and colorful. It had lost a lot of its fragrance while it was warming in the oven.
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
With the sun behind it, I was able to appreciate the inner bindings of the fruit and how it was all woven to the rind.
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
The finished dried pieces feel very fragile, almost like rice paper. When turned certain ways in the light the sections looked like the wings of an insect.
I saw a website where someone posted photos of the dried lemon and orange slices hung as decorations on their Christmas tree. With the Christmas lights on the tree shining through the citrus slices and the stained glass effect, it looked really neat! And *then* I read that the citrus keeps the kitty cats from messing around in the tree because they don't like it!
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
There are nuances of both sun catcher and dream catcher to them. I may take my second lemon from the tree and slice it for another round of shrinky-dinking my fruit.
Now I have to look at other art project options. There are a lot of interesting things to try that are popping up. I will post an update about the destiny of my first lemons after I have decided what to do.
Photo by YayHappens
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Pink Lemon
After seeing them looking so pretty in the sunlight, I may change my mind about what to do with these. Now I am undecided!
Photo by YayHappens