When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

- Dale Carnegie

Lemons¹ (Citrus limon) are yellow and ovoid-oblong shaped fruit; they may possess thick rinds² and sour juicy centres and typically measure about 4 inches (11cm) in size. The citrus fruit is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Sapindales, family Rutaceae (orange family). Lemons grow on small prolific trees that can reach 6m (20ft) in height, possess thorny branches which make an open crown, and grow alongside fragrant, white star-shaped flowers and green, shiny, elliptical-acuminate leaves.

The slang term 'lemon' has been used to describe various products/investments which have produced poor performance when bought. For example, the motor car that appears to have nothing wrong with it until the purchaser gets it home. The reason for this use is that, like its fruity counterpart, the experience leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Varieties

Around 50 varieties of lemon exist in the world today and these can be divided into the categories acidic and sweet, with the acidic varieties being more commonly found than the sweet. Below are just a few descriptions of the lemons there are on offer in the world.

• Eureka Lemon - The Eureka variety is the most common lemon to be found in the world. It contains a high amount of acid and juice. The lemon is thin skinned and contains very few seeds.

• Lisbon Lemon - Similar to the Eureka lemon, the Lisbon lemon also possesses a thin skin, a high amount of acid and juice. Lisbon trees are thought to be more productive than the Eureka lemon tree.

• Meyer Lemon - These are named after FN Meyer who imported the lemon hybrid into the United States from China in 1908. They are commonly found throughout the world but aren't true lemons i.e. they are a hybrid³ between a lemon and orange or mandarin. They therefore possess a lower acidity level than the Lisbon and Eureka varieties, while also having a softer and less bitter internal texture. It is hardier than the true lemons so is more popular to grow.

• Fino Lemon - It is unclear where the Fino Lemon derived from, but it has been growing in Spain for a number of years. The lemon contains a high acidity level, thin rind and is very juicy.

• Verna Lemon - The Verna lemon's origins are also unknown, but it too has been growing in Spain for a while. The trees are vigorous, possess thorns and like to spread. Usually Verna trees produce lemons 2 to 3 times a year.

History

It is very difficult to say exactly where the lemon originated from, for it multiplies very easily. Many people believe though that it comes from the region of Southeast Asia between India and Southern China. They then spread to Greece in around 300 BC, where the Greeks believed that oranges and lemons were a symbol⁴ of fecundity and love. Over the years, travelers such as the Crusaders returning from Palestine brought home the seeds of lemons to plant and carried⁵ lemons with them to quench their thirst during the holy wars⁶. Lemons, otherwise known as the 'golden apple', were also traded for other materials such as fine cloths, precious metals and artifacts.

It is questionable whether or not the Romans did in fact grow lemons like Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa claims in her book A Taste of Ancient Rome, for paleobotanical and literary evidence does not support this belief. However, there are mosaics in Carthage and frescoes in Pompeii that appear to portray oranges and lemons, although the artists could have seen them on their travels to the east. Either way oranges and lemon groves have been claimed to be first grown around the Italian Amalfi Coast⁷ in around 200AD.

By 700 AD lemons had reached Iraq and just before 1000AD had started to appear in Sicily and Egypt. Egyptians are believed to be the first people to have created the summer drink, lemonade, despite lemons having been grown further east. The earliest written evidence of lemonade comes from Egypt.

Lemons have also appeared in literature too such as Arabic Qustus al-Rumi’s early tenth-century book on farming, the chronicles of the Persian poet and traveler Nasir-i-Khusraw (1003-1061?), Ibn Jami’s treatise on the lemon and a journal of a servant to French King Louis XIV.

Lemons have long been associated with long journeys by ship and slavery. The first travels lemons embarked upon were those in the early Middle Ages on Arab vessels, who introduced the lemon to Europe near the end of the 12th century. Genoa started cultivating lemons during the mid-fifteenth century and in 1493 Christopher Columbus brought lemons to Haiti from across the Atlantic and in the year that followed the Azores started growing them. During the 16th Century Spaniards visiting St. Augustine, Florida started growing lemons there and then lemon growing spread to California, which today provides about a third of the world's lemons and most of America's. Other commercial suppliers are Italy⁸, Sicily, California, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Argentina and Brazil.

Do me a lemon: Home Remedies

Health

How do you treat sick lemons? Give them lemonade.

Due to their contents, lemons are widely known as an antiseptic, anti-spasmodic, antioxidant, bactericidal, diuretic, antiscorbutic, astringent, febrifuge, antihypertensive, antifungal, insecticide, immune-stimulant and antiviral. This is because lemons contain Vitamin C (one lemon provides 40 to 70 percent of the minimum daily requirement)⁹ (ascorbic acid, also called anti-scorbutic factor), citric acid and iron¹⁰. To find out a bit more about the benefits lemons bring, visit the Purdue University website.

Historically, lemons have been linked to curing scurvy

In 1593 Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins cured an entire ship's company of scurvy by making them all drink lemon juice. This was apparently forgotten until 1747, when Dr James Lind a surgeon in the Royal Navy in the mid-18th century proved experimentally that oranges and lemons cured scurvy, but various other things such as cider and vinegar did not. During Captain Cook's second voyage 1773-76 Cook acted on Lind's advice and supplied oranges, lemons and pickled cabbage to his men. Of 118 men who commenced this voyage, only one man died from disease and it wasn't scurvy.

From 1795 onwards, daily rations of lemon juice were compulsory in the British Navy. However, some time later they were replaced by the much cheaper and inferior lime juice from British West Indies. (This gave rise to the nickname of 'limeys' for British sailors and 'limejuicers' for ships).

Today lemons are seen to cure colds and burns

When it's cold outside and people are feeling run down, a Hot Toddy (lemon drink) will help people from looking like a clown. For lemons possess a high concentration of vitamin C, that if absorbed will boost the immune system and fight off the nasty colds.

One Researcher has found that a lemon will cure an accident with a car lighter.

My son stuck his thumb on a car lighter ... a couple of years ago in the remote village of Baskinta in Lebanon. During the hoohaa of ice and screaming child, an old man came hurrying out of the monastery we were visiting with a knife in one hand and a lemon in the other, sliced the lemon in half and stuck his thumb in there. Told him to leave it in until it stopped hurting. By the time my brother got us to the nearest doctor, it was charred and puckered but didn't hurt - and it has healed without a scar.

Lemons are also supposed to counteract the effects of narcotics, soothe sunburn, cure jaundice, reduce temperature and act as a substitute for quinine. As well as being used to remedy epilepsy, make toothpaste, create invisible ink and make a bleaching agent and be used in witchcraft (Wicca).

Lemons and the Household

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.
~Alfred E. Newman

So lemons can be used to cure humans, but did you know they can also clean houses? Whether a house is suffering from dirty windows, filthy copper-bottomed cooking pots, unclean furniture and mucky cutting boards or contains stains, lemons can eliminate these problems as they are acidic and contain antibacterial and antiseptic properties.

• Window Cleaner - mix water together with some lemon juice and apply to the windows. Then wipe the windows dry.

• Cleaning Copper-bottomed Cooking Pots - cut a lemon in half, add some salt and apply to the utensils, before wiping dry.

• Cleaning Surfaces - halve a lemon and apply it to the surface that needs cleaning. Lemons kill grease and if they are used on an oven will make the oven smell nice.

• Cleaning Furniture - add 10 drops of lemon oil to 2 tablespoons lemon juice and a few drops of olive oil or jojoba and apply it to the furniture.

• Preserving Flowers - Household flowers can be kept longer if lemonade is added to them.

• Cedro Oil (extracted from lemons) - appears in soaps, detergents, perfumes and cooking.

Religion

Before embarking on the delicious recipes featured below, it is important to note that not all types of lemon are used in cooking. The Citron (Citrus medica) for example, is not used in this way but still serves a purpose when it comes to medicine, scent and religious ceremonies such as Buddhist ceremonies and the Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles (Sukkot).

Recipes

A lemon’s parts can be used separately or together depending on the purpose¹¹ it is to serve. Lemons help in the creation of many meals such as soups, salad dressings or sauces¹², vegetable dishes, sorbets, meat dishes, summer drinks, baking (such as cakes), confectionery (such as Skittles)and are used to garnish fish¹³. Lemon juice is also used in cooking because of its sharp flavour and low sugar content and can create marmalade and jellies.

Lemon Juice

Lemon juice can be frozen,¹⁴ dehydrated and powdered. Its primary use is to create lemonade¹⁵ and other drinks such as lemon tea, Gin and Tonic or Tequila. It is also used in baking and flavouring and can be found in some pharmaceutical products. And if added to cream before whipping it can flavour and give stability to the cream. Lemon juice, though acidic in itself, is digested and absorbed to produce bicarbonate which is alkaline. Therefore, it has on balance an alkalising effect in the body.

To extract juice from the lemons first roll them on a hard surface, hard enough that your whole house smells like lemon, not so hard the fruit splits. This will break the small cells inside the fruit, and you will get more flavour and a larger quantity of juice. For Christmas Cake choose an untreated lemon the zest will be extracted from and carefully wash and dry the lemon before creating the zest.

The Peel

The peel can also be eaten and it's full of bioflavinoids, which helps with vitamin B and C metabolism. The tastiest lemon peel comes on overripe lemons. Lemon peel can also be candied and preserved in brine. It helps to create lemon oil¹⁶, Pectin and citric acid and can flavour hard candies and processed lemon juice.

Drinks associated with lemons are Coca-Cola, Tea, Shirley Temple, 'Collins' (the whole family; Tom, Limoncello, Archers and Lemonade, Joe, Vodka, etc.), Dozens of 'Daisys' (Whiskey, Rum, etc.), Greenwich Sour, 'Le Cadeau' (The Gift), 'Lynchburg Lemonade' (Jack Daniels distillery/Lynchburg, Tennessee USA, 'Mata Hari', and some 'Sangria' drinks.

Below are just a few recipes lemons are used in:

• Lemon Curd Cheesecake
• Lemon and Vanilla Souffle
• Ginger and Lemon Sponge
• Lemon Curd Syllabub
• Raspberry meringue stack with strawberry lemon blush sorbet and fresh strawberries
• The World's Simplest Lemon Chicken Recipe
• Pickled Lemons

Grow Your Own

Don't just stand there like a lemon... why not try growing them?

If these recipes have tantalised the taste buds why not try growing a lemon tree like Kate Meats did from Oxfordshire.

Planting

Lemons produce seeds, which can be planted in order to grow even more lemons. These lemons and the trees ¹⁷ on which they grow will differ from their original source, due to the fact that the seeds will have been created from a male lemon and female lemon and thus have characteristics of both parental lemons and the trees in which they came from.

Lemons grow best in coastal areas like the Italian Amalfi Coast. It is important when planting lemon seeds to make sure the seeds and the soil¹⁸ in which they grow is fresh so that mould is not produced. The seeds should be planted just under the top layer of compost and need to be watered thoroughly before being left to settle in temperatures of around 25°C - 30°C. After a few weeks the lemon seeds should have started to show signs of becoming trees and have grown to 6 to 7 inches high.

When they reach this height it is important to re-plant them in individual 2.5 inch unglazed terracotta pots¹⁹ which contain the same original compost and leave them to settle just out of direct sunlight.

Watering

Lemon trees are particularly fussy when it comes to watering them. They like to be flooded at watering times and left until their soil becomes arid before another good watering. Lemons thrive in temperatures of 15–30 °C (60–85 °F) and hate frosts, which often lead to their death. With every third watering they should also be fed phosphorus and nitrogen-rich food such as Phostrogen and foliar feed should be used up to three times during the growing season. Lemon trees also like a tonic containing salts and minerals. To help them combat a deficiency in magnesium, Epsom Salt can be used.

Characteristics

When your lemon seedlings become a lemon tree it is important that the tree can support 180g of fruit. If you let your lemon grow as a shrub instead of a tree, support for the fruit is much less of a problem. If they are not strong enough find a way of supporting them. Lemon trees commonly lose up to 95% of their fruit for no apparent reason. Lemons also bear heavily one year and then lightly the next in an alternating schedule. They will have a secondary crop for the same year that is always lighter than that year's crop (at least, in spring in California) if you treat them nicely, so don't panic! Often brightly white star-shaped flowers can be seen on the lemon trees even when the lemons themselves appear. Lemon trees are shrubby in appearance and deliberately grow like that. If you trim them then you will obtain lots of green leaves and a small amount of large fruit. In this way the bi-yearly schedule may be reset unless the tree is very old and set in its ways. Furthermore, make sure that the tree receives plenty of sunlight.

Lemons vary in size (usually organic ones are small), shape (sometimes very pronounced points) and skin type. But to know whether a lemon is right for consumption make sure that they possess no green tinge (a sign of under ripeness), are heavy²⁰, fragrant and taut, with thick (but not very hard) skins and when gently squeezed the lemon's contents can be felt.

Harvesting and Storing

How many times a year lemons are harvested, depends heavily on the climate the lemons are grown in. As California and Italy have wonderful warm temperatures lemons are harvested more frequently, in fact up to 6 to 10 times a year. The best times for harvesting in California are during the months May, June and August, while harvesting in Italy is done over a 100-day strictly seasonal period.

The best way to harvest lemons wherever they are grown in the world is to leave them on the tree until they are likely to be used and then cut them off at the stem just above the lemon. If the lemons are picked as soon as they appear ready to eat and are simply left they will rot. But if they are left on the tree they will not rot, but may become even bigger, riper and juicier, as well as resulting in a large quantity of readily germinated seeds being produced. In mild climates it doesn't harm the tree or fruit if you leave the fruit for a year or more on the tree before harvesting them, they will just grow bigger.

After the lemons have been picked from the tree keep them unwashed until they are to be used. By leaving them in this state they won't easily become mouldy and their protective surface layer won't be easily bruised. They can even be kept in the refrigerator up to 2 to 3 weeks.

Home Canning

For home canning follow these simple instructions:

• Select fruit for canning
• Wash the fruit and canning jars; don't pick any old normal jar for it will crack when boiling hot water is poured inside it.
• Peel the fruit
• Slice the lemons into segments
• Create a syrup solution
• Heat the syrup solution
• Add the syrup and fruit to the jars
• Seal the jars

Pests

Lemons encounter various pests and diseases, such as:

• All ants like lemons, not so much that they like the lemon tree so much as there are some scales on the tree which normally don't hurt the tree much. The ants prevent finches from eating them off because they like the honeydew. You don't need to flood the field, though. Just put something sticky on the bark so the ants can't defend the scale from predatory birds and wasps and you are fine. The ant which attacks the root system in Southeast Asia: in order to get rid of these ants the farmers douse their fields with water, which brings out the ants; these are then burnt alive.
• Wild rabbits
• Rust mites
• Purple mites
• Purple scale
• The red scale Aonidiella aurantii, a pest which has been brought under control biologically in some places and by pesticides in others.
• Eating snails which are the same brown ones that were imported here in California for eating by some enterprising Frenchman, are a huge pest. Diatomaceous earth can be put around the trunk, or the snails can be picked off by hand, since they are really obvious against the bright green leaves that they are eating.

Diseases

Lemons are prone to catching diseases, such as:

• Elsinoe fawcetti.
• Gummosis (Diaporthe citri)
• Botryosphaeria ribis and Diplodia natalensis cause melanose and die-back, and stem-end rot.
• Glomerella cingulata; greasy spot (Mycosphaerella citri or Cercospora citri-grisea)
• Colletotrichum gloeosporioides.

They may also be affected by:

• Branch knot (Sphaeropsis tumefaciens)
• Damping-off (Rhizoctonia solani)
• Leaf spot (Mycosphaerella horii, AIternaria citri, and Catenularia sp.; algal leaf spot or green scurf (Cephaleuros virescens)
• Tar spot (Cercospora gigantea)
• Felt fungus (Septobasidium pseudopedicellatum)
• Charcoal root rot (Macrophomia phaseolina)
• Root rot (Fusarium oxysporum, Pythium ultimum, and Phytophthora parasitica; heart rot and wood rot (Fomes applanatus and Ganoderma sessilis)
• Crinkly leaf and exocortis viruses
• Green mould (Penicillium digitatum)
• Blue mould (P. italicum)
• Pink mould (P. roseum).
• Red Algae-causes die back unless controlled by copper fungicide during the summer.

Other problems lemons may have are deficiencies in zinc and manganese and fruit cracking which usually affects lemons during dry periods followed by heavy rains. But this can be avoided through frequent light irrigation during the dry period and early picking. Although not externally shown, lemons can harbour stem-end rots and mould.

Lemon Battery

Some school children make batteries using a lemon²¹, some zinc²²and a piece of copper,²³ then fasten crocodile clips to an LED light bulb and the light bulb lights up. Sadly though this experiment works, lemons can't keep cars and other battery powered products ticking.

Lemon myrtle

Recently the Australian bush food lemon myrtle has become a popular alternative to using lemons. The crushed and dried leaves and edible essential oils have a strong, sweet lemon taste, but contain no citric acid. Lemon myrtle is popular in foods that curdle with lemon juice, such as cheesecakes and ice-cream.

Songs

Lemons have also been incorporated into songs:

• Lemon Tree by Darren Hayes
• Oranges and Lemons
• Lemon Tree
• Lemon by U2