Fresh lemonade

Homemade lemonade made with lemons fresh from the garden, or the grocery store, is so easy.  Just squeeze your lemons, make a simple syrup with sugar and water and you're ready to make a cool summery lemonade.

This year we have a super- abundance of lemons, on our own trees, and so do neighbours and sundry cousins all of whom are giving us bags of bounty which, this year, we don't need.  They get left on the doorstep or at the gate, no way we can refuse.  At the moment I'm squeezing lemon after lemon of those given to us as they seem to be going soft and rotting very quickly.  Ours are still on the tree and there they will remain till I have dealt with the 'foreign' fruit.

Amaryllis flower under the lemon tree

Today I'm juicing and making fresh lemonade syrup which will be put into 1/2 litre bottles and frozen so we can drink lemonade all through the summer.. and probably next summer.  Homemade and fresh (-ly unfrozen), the perfect drink to offer a hot summer visitor.

I will also freeze a few bottles of plain juice.

These lemons have loads of juice, unlike the year my neice K was visiting from Australia.  She tried to make a lemon meringue pie but didn't manage to get even a drop out of the dozen lemons she 'squeezed'.  Fortunately she's an Australian (with kiwi roots) and just took it in her stride and made us a delicious peach pie.  Peaches are luscious whatever the year    

Recipe 

For a half litre bottle of lemon cordial squeeze a mug and a half of lemon juice.
Boil together a mug of sugar and a mug of water.  They don't really need to boil much, just enough for the sugar to melt.  When the syrup is cold, add the mug and a half of lemon juice.  Give it a good stir and bottle.  It should keep in the fridge for about three weeks.  

To make into lemonade, pour a third of a glass of cordial and top up with cold water and ice and a leaf or two of mint.  

If it is too sweet or too tart for your liking you can add more sugar to the next batch or more lemon juice.

I don't boil the syrup once I add the lemon juice.  I hope this way I preserve  more of the vitamin C.  I don't strain the juice either.  I like the bits of lemon flesh drifting around in the glass.  Seems more authentic.

I have also seen recipes using honey or stevia.


To make it even more refreshing you could add some lemon peel to the syrup or even a piece of fresh ginger.  Here some also add a few leaves of  abororizo.

See the recipe for red wine liqueur flavoured with this flower under the label 'greek drinks'

Abororizo - pink pelagonia I think is the english translation.  The leaves of the pelagonia have a slight lemony taste and are often used here in liqueurs and sweets

Two bottles of juice ready for the freezer and half a bottle of cordial.  You can make the syrupy cordial and freeze that as well if you want lemonade all through the year