Comments on: No chix-sicles at Chez Siberia http://www.kitchencountereconomics.com/2009/10/17/no-chix-sicles-at-chez-siberia/ Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:17:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: htwollin http://www.kitchencountereconomics.com/2009/10/17/no-chix-sicles-at-chez-siberia/#comment-443 htwollin Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:22:40 +0000 http://www.kitchencountereconomics.com/?p=760#comment-443 Lindy - we had a complete washout in terms of tomatoes this year. Zip. Nada. As for lemons, what are you going to do with them - here's a trick the DH did years ago to make concentrated lemon juice (though you can use it with any fruit that you can juice): Squeeze the lemons really hard and put the juice in something like a soda bottle - something with a neck on it - and put into the freezer to freeze hard. Then, take it out and put it into a bowl to defrost - what comes out of the neck is going to be the lemon juice concentrate only - the water stays frozen. If you want it more concentrated, you can do it again, but the first 'freezing' is pretty good. You can take that, put it into ice cube trays, freeze that and then pop them out into a ziplock(tm) bag and put that in your freezer for instant lemon concentrate. Lindy – we had a complete washout in terms of tomatoes this year. Zip. Nada. As for lemons, what are you going to do with them – here’s a trick the DH did years ago to make concentrated lemon juice (though you can use it with any fruit that you can juice):
Squeeze the lemons really hard and put the juice in something like a soda bottle – something with a neck on it – and put into the freezer to freeze hard. Then, take it out and put it into a bowl to defrost – what comes out of the neck is going to be the lemon juice concentrate only – the water stays frozen. If you want it more concentrated, you can do it again, but the first ‘freezing’ is pretty good. You can take that, put it into ice cube trays, freeze that and then pop them out into a ziplock(tm) bag and put that in your freezer for instant lemon concentrate.

]]> By: Lindy http://www.kitchencountereconomics.com/2009/10/17/no-chix-sicles-at-chez-siberia/#comment-439 Lindy Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:44:51 +0000 http://www.kitchencountereconomics.com/?p=760#comment-439 Hey! I see you have much better things to do than pretend tend a cartoon fantasy (Farmtown). As a frustrated urban farmer, I have to say I am...jealous. I did harvest some lemons yesterday from our poor little Meyer lemon tree. We bought it last spring. It was in bloom at the time (LOVELY fragrance) and bore fruit in short order. Lots of fruit. The poor tree is bent over with fruit. I count 25 lemons...20, now that I've harvested a few...and the rest will be ready in the next few days. Did you know that bell peppers seem to like being companioned with lemon trees? In this southern clime, pests are a problem, particularly if you don't want to use poisons to keep them under control. The bell pepper that I put in the big lemon tree pot has thrived and has not fallen prey to the many insects or the blight that killed my tomatoes. It has produced peppers, even in the hottest part of the summer (and that is VERY hot here), and is blooming again in OCTOBER. I lost every single one of my tomatoes (all 30 of them) to the late blight that's been running rampant here. The big box stores finally took all tomatoes and potatoes off the shelves of their garden centers. I had started all but five from seed. The rest i bought at (you guessed it) a big box store. This is the same blight that caused the potato famine in the 1930s. I had several heirloom varieties along with a few trusted hybrids. Sniff. Hey! I see you have much better things to do than pretend tend a cartoon fantasy (Farmtown). As a frustrated urban farmer, I have to say I am…jealous.

I did harvest some lemons yesterday from our poor little Meyer lemon tree. We bought it last spring. It was in bloom at the time (LOVELY fragrance) and bore fruit in short order. Lots of fruit. The poor tree is bent over with fruit. I count 25 lemons…20, now that I’ve harvested a few…and the rest will be ready in the next few days.

Did you know that bell peppers seem to like being companioned with lemon trees? In this southern clime, pests are a problem, particularly if you don’t want to use poisons to keep them under control. The bell pepper that I put in the big lemon tree pot has thrived and has not fallen prey to the many insects or the blight that killed my tomatoes. It has produced peppers, even in the hottest part of the summer (and that is VERY hot here), and is blooming again in OCTOBER.

I lost every single one of my tomatoes (all 30 of them) to the late blight that’s been running rampant here. The big box stores finally took all tomatoes and potatoes off the shelves of their garden centers. I had started all but five from seed. The rest i bought at (you guessed it) a big box store. This is the same blight that caused the potato famine in the 1930s. I had several heirloom varieties along with a few trusted hybrids. Sniff.

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