Who'd A Thunk

Citrus is ready to be plucked from my trees at the farm.  Small crop this year resulting from a deep freeze in the greenhouse last winter when the propane ran out.  I feared all my plants had died, but they survived though the crop output was affected.

Maldon Sea Salt from across the ocean and citrus rind from a greenhouse in Oklahoma combined to make a condiment for...  I rarely cook anymore.  May have to give this to my daughter, the cook.  I am amazed at global commerce in this day and age.  Wonder if they will be eating Solyent Green in fifty years?

It will be sunny and 60 degrees today.  I'll be all smiles.  

Happy Day To Me

Well, today I turned somewhere north of thirty.  If you remember, I tried using my first crop of limes to make a limoncello.  I have tried it with lemons, but never limes.

Only the skin of the fruit is used in the making.

Add the rinds to the strongest grain alcohol on the planet and place in a dark cupboard for weeks or months.

It turned out beautiful.  Limoncello, when the syrup is added, turns cloudy, opaque.  Not so with the lime one.

This stuff will literally kill you if you drink too much of it, though that would be impossible I think. Surely the liver would fail and the imbiber become comatose before they could drink very much of it. I took one tiny sip and that is it.  It almost brought me to my knees.  I felt the heat go down my throat and all the way down my esophagus.  So much for a little drinky winky on my birthday.  Oh my heaven and stars.  I am saving this for cough medicine or the flu.

Lime Time

My Persian lime tree produced twenty limes this fall.  My first crop I might add.  You notice all the peelers.  I have even more.  You see, to make limoncello (I don't even know what you'd call limoncello made from limes), one must peel only the surface rind. It is hard to find a peeler that works well. No white pith as it will ruin the batch.  

I poured a very strong grain alcohol into a jar with the peels.  After a few weeks in a cool, dark place, the peels will snap like a potato chip.  Then, I'll add a sugar syrup and bottle it up and into the freezer.  It will grow hair on your chest.  I rarely drink it, but instead, give it away.

Not so for my lime juice.

I freeze it in little cubes and bag it up for when I need smaller amounts.

Voila!