To make a guaranteed, no sugar lemonade, I buy club soda and a bag of lemons, ~$0.50/each. My first bulk bag, I lost about 1/3d stored in bag to a fungus. The second bag stored in a large bowl, another bunch went bad. So for the latest bag, I washed, dryed them, and stored on three paper plates isolated from each. This is what I found this morning: So I soap and water washed the remaining lemons and tossed the paper plate. What next? store in fridge - hoping the cold will inhibit the mold but it takes up space. better wash - high or low pH or a fungicide UV box - cabinet space is easy but needs power squeeze and heat - convert them all into juice and then Pasteurize Suggestions? Bob Wilson
I put them in the refrigerator - we use them in salads a lot - especially the rind (the peel/skin when you finely grate it). Here is some info for you from some pros: How to Store Lemons To Keep Them Fresh For a Month | The Kitchn "The results? The lemons stored in room temperature conditions only lasted a week before hardening. But the ones they sealed in plastic bags in the refrigerator? Those lasted FOUR times as long. A month versus a week on the countertop! The lemons stored loose in the refrigerator didn’t fare quite as well, but were still an improvement over the room temperature examples. And the article makes a point that the lemons should be sealed in a plastic bag and not just shoved in a drawer in their flimsy, open supermarket produce bags." How to Store Lemons and Prevent Rot | Glad®
You're lucky. You don't seem to want the lemons, just some of the juice and maybe a little pulp. Me?? I would buy them in bulk and immediately squeeze them into freezer bags of an appropriate size to make your particular quantity of lemonade. Otherwise you could do what the Amish (and some other - especially Mediterranean cultures) do to preserve them indefinitely...You only need three things: fresh lemons, kosher salt, and a quart-size glass jar with a tight fitting lid! How to Make and Use Preserved Lemons
A bleach solution will work, unless you want the zest for something if you want to avoid using fridge space. Don't want to mess with rinsing off the bleach, there is a no rinse acidified bleach solution that home brewers use for equipment. It is 1 ounce vinegar and 1 ounce bleach(normal strength) to 5gal water, or 20mL each to 20L water. Don't mix the vinegar and bleach together. Make it fresh, and let the lemons soak for at least a minute. Can't say how much these will extend the shelf life, but they will kill most of the mold if done correctly starting on the rind. If going to squeeze, I'd just freeze the juice in ice trays. There are plenty of different sizes and shapes now available, even ones that will fit in a water bottle. Find one close to your portion.
Buy them in a quantity where they get used within a week? We never buy bulk bags of anything except apples or oranges (if you consider bulk to be the normal sized bag at a grocery store, or are you talking bulk, as in Costco or Sam's Club?) Our family pretty much purchases fruits and veggies within a day or 3 of use. Maybe it's just more convenient for us since my wife drives by the grocery store every day during her normal work routine.
I'll try three separate plastic bags in the fridge. I have three groups of 5 lemons on paper plates. Bob Wilson
Our SoCal lemon tree was so over productive I'd have to take lots of major limbs to the dump. You should have seen those people working there scramble to clean off all the fruit. You can only consume so many lemons unless you're turning it into lemonade. Suggestion: squeeze & freeze. That will keep the juice for longer than most of us will survive. Another hint we do is we use a non sugar sweetener, as lemons have quite a bit of carbs.
Just lemon juice and water and my continuous glucose monitor (CGM) stays flat. I really have to watch the labels as so many foods have sugar added . . . including McDonalds hamburger patties. I was pretty unhappy to be the rabbit that CGM revealed. Burger King, no problem. FYI, I only eat them when out of town and getting a sack snack while charging. I eat the middle and the dogs get the buns. Bob Wilson
There’s sometimes a network (there is one in Vancouver I’ve heard of) that’ll get surplus food to food banks, soup kitchens and the like. Stuff like banquet-sized restaurant orders where they got stiffed by the customer was one example; they have contacts, volunteer drivers, coordinators.
"better wash - high or low pH or a fungicide" quick look in publications examining hi/lo pH suggests that acid is a better choice. Fungicides should stay far from kitchens as they mess with metabolic pathways shared with all animals including us. Maybe skin fungal treatments are less a risk? Those seem to go after cell-membrane components that we do not have. I'd still not want to swallow them. Still want to soapy wash fruit before processing. Nice lemon photo BTW. Seems to show at least 2 species growing friendly in contact. Fungi are famous for warfare so this is always surprising to see.
Hummm, I've got a bottle of citric acid: (1) dish soap wash; (2) wipe dry, and; (3) citric acid dusting, I know the British navy discovered limes could be preserved on long voyages to avoid scurvy: Preservation: Gilbert Blane, a medical reformer, determined that adding 10% "spirits of wine" (distilled ethyl alcohol) to lemon juice would preserve it almost indefinitely. And I've been alcohol abstinent for 3 years come May. Perhaps I can just call it home made lemon or lime extract? I could substitute Tequila, another "spirits of wine," for whatever the British distilled. It would be so much easier to store without refrigeration. Bob Wilson
When I was in college, every time I decided to get a pizza, my dorm friend would ask to come along. I soon discovered that I was buying a whole pizza but sometimes lucky to get more than one slice. That is until I discovered the benefits of salty anchovies. The dogs and I still eat pizza and I put anchovies on my part, the topping. The dogs love the flat bread and lick the anchovy can clean. Best of all, no glucose spikes. Bob Wilson
